TANIA MUKHERJEE Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge in the present writ petition is to an order dtd. 17/2/2022 passed by the Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal. The said order was passed pursuant to a direction of a Division Bench of this Court in an appeal filed by the petitioners which arose from an order passed by this Court on 8/2/2022 in W.P.A. No. 1582 of 2022. By the impugned order, the Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, rejected the case of the petitioners, namely, that doctors working in specialised units can be equated with those who have rendered Covid-19 related duties and are eligible for the in-service quota for post-graduate seats in Government colleges.

(2.) All 50 petitioners before the court have qualified the NEET -PG Examination, 2021 and are graduate doctors who are serving as Medical Officers in Hospitals across the State. The petitioners seek a declaration that the petitioners are eligible for the in-service quota by dint of serving in Specialised Units in terms of a statutory amendment notified on 21/1/2016 by the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal. The Specialised Units mentioned in the 2016 Notification are Sick Newborn Care Unit (SNCU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), Critical Care Unit (CCU), Intensive Cardiac Care Unit (ICCU) and Intensive Therapy Unit (ITU). The petitioners claim to have completed more than three years in service in such Specialised Units with an additional one year and nine months of Covid duty.

(3.) The writ petitioners and three others were before the court in an earlier writ petition being W.P.A. No. 1582 of 2022 (Tania Mukherjee and Ors. Vs. The State of West Bengal and Ors.) and had sought for a similar declaration with regard to the petitioners ' eligibility for the in-service quota by reason of serving in Specialised Units together with Covid related duty. The Writ Petition was dismissed by an order dtd. 8/2/2022 holding that the petitioners cannot be brought within the fold of those Medical Officers who had served in remote or difficult areas as defined in a Notification of the Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal dtd. 26/2/2020. The petitioners challenged the said order before a Division Bench of this Court and the appeal was disposed of by an order directing the Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Government of West Bengal, to re-consider the case of the petitioners on account of four points which are set out below :-