MHC grants interim stay to issue work order for newly recruited doctors

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has imposed an interim stay to issue work orders to the 1021 newly recruited doctors, who have passed the medical exam for the post of government doctors.

Petitioners Adams Pushparaj, Rajkumar, and 12 others moved the Madras High Court (MHC) claiming that the State government has not given priority to them, who worked in the frontline during the Covid pandemic, in the recruitment of new government doctors in the State.

The case was listed before Justice Sathish Kumar. The counsel for the petitioners argued that the Union government had ordered all the State governments to give priority to those who have given medical service during the Covid pandemic for more than 100 days, in the new doctors recruitment process. However, the petitioners who worked more than 300 days were not given priority in the new recruitment by the State government and were not given incentive marks like other States, he contended.

Accepting this argument, the judge gave an interim stay to issue the work orders for the newly recruited government doctors and posted the matter to August 11, 2023, for further arguments.

In 2020, the Union government issued an order to all the States to give priority to the doctors recruitment for those who worked in the Covid pandemic to treat infected patients.