AIIMS nurses go on strike over suspension of colleague, HC asks them to rejoin immediately

New Delhi: After the Nurses' Union of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here went on an indefinite strike demanding that the suspension of Nursing Officer Harish Kajla be revoked, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday evening directed the nurses to return to work immediately, holding that nurses must place the interest of the patients above and beyond their dispute with the administration.

Nursing Officer Kajla was on Monday suspended by the hospital after he allegedly "misbehaved" with a resident doctor during a protest for better working hours for nurses last week. On Tuesday morning, around 300 nurses of the hospital went on strike, demanding that the suspension be revoked.

"I have not at all behaved inappropriately with the doctor. My voice may have been loud but that's the way I talk when I'm disrespected. That day, the nurses were demonstrating for a change in their shifts and out of nowhere that doctor came in and started to flex his opinion," Kajla said in his defence.

And as the strike continued throughout Tuesday, many patients who had travelled from far and wide to be treated were left waiting without being attended to.

Eventually, the hospital administration approached the Delhi High Court, where Justice Yashwant Varma recognised the right of the nurses to espouse their cause but also said that they should consider the deleterious impact that the call to strike would have on the medical institution as well as patients awaiting emergency surgery and care.

Hence, the court directed that the nurses immediately rejoin work forthwith pending further orders.

The court at this stage deems it appropriate to call upon the union to require its members to resume duties bearing in mind the essential nature of the duties they perform. The judge noted that none appeared on behalf of the nurses' union and directed that the petition be listed for further consideration on April 27 at 10.30 am. Lawyer Satya Ranjan Swain, appearing for AIIMS, informed the court that the nurses' union refused to attend to duty following a notice issued on April 25 and the same resulted in the cancellation of various surgeries and has crippled the functioning of a centre of excellence. He further submitted that action against the office-bearer was based on video clips of an incident that took place on April 22 and that the demands of the union are under active consideration and there was no justification to go on a strike. Swain informed that AIIMS had to enlist its MBBS students to assist its medical personnel in procedures that they performed during the day and urged the court to pass an interim direction of stay.

Following the high court order, the Nurses' Union late on Tuesday night called off their strike.