HC dismisses plea by Kangra doc deputed for Covid-19 duty

The Himachal Pradesh high court on Monday dismissed a petition filed by a doctor from Kangra district challenging the orders of his deputation to a makeshift Covid-19 hospital in Una district.

In his petition, the doctor maintained that in 2018, he had met with an accident and remained hospitalised for a period of five months. He pleaded that since he had suffered lumber, spine and sacrum injuries in the said accident, he would not be able to serve at the place of deputation.

While disposing of the petition, the division bench comprising justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia observed that the petitioner has failed to realise that the health workers in overcrowded hospitals, the policemen and other frontline workers are already beset with overwhelming load of Covid-19 patients and these workers are exhausted from almost a year of restless fighting against the pandemic.

The court observed that the state is currently fighting the grimmest battle against Covid-19 which is nothing short of a disaster culminating in mass deaths and, therefore, it is imperative that the frontline workers are made to work on rotation basis or else the health system is likely to collapse with the sudden and drastic surge in Covid-19 cases.

The bench said the petitioner is trying to escape from the duties and responsibilities that have now been assigned to him as there is no contemporaneous records to show that the petitioner is in any manner incapacitated to serve at the transferred station and if the petitioner is fit enough to render his services in Kangra district, why he cannot serve at the makeshift Covid facility in Una.

A government servant is the holder of a status and that cannot be made depending on his will, the bench said. “Once a person accepts the status as per rules, he no longer remains only a simple individual, but an integral part of governance, and at times even in the face of government,” said the division bench.

The court said that in the garb of self-unwillingness to serve, the petitioner cannot be permitted to shirk from his duties and responsibilities.