The Bombay High Court on Thursday summoned the head of department, gynaecology and obstetrics of BYL Nair Hospital, to determine if the three accused in the suicide case of their junior colleague Payal Tadvi can be permitted to complete their master’s degree at the hospital.
The three doctors — Hema Ahuja, Bhakti Meher and Ankita Khandelwal — were arrested for abetting Tadvi’s suicide and were granted bail in August last year with the condition that they will not enter Topiwala National Medical College affiliated to Nair Hospital. Their medical licences were also suspended till the end of the trial.
A single Bench of Justice Sadhana Jadhav asked the head of department to be present in the court on Friday afternoon when it is likely to pass an order on a plea filed by the accused seeking modifications to the order which granted them bail.
Aabad Ponda, counsel for the three accused, asked the court for permission to enter the hospital so that they could complete their final year of post-graduation.
Justic Jadhav hinted that she was inclined to let the accused complete their education when she said, “It is true that the victim has lost her life and right to education, but at the same time we cannot stop the accused persons from pursuing their education. Our society is not the one to go for ‘an eye for an eye’.”
But the court also asked if it would be right for the accused to go back to the same college. Mr. Ponda then told the court that there were three units of gynaecology and obstetrics at Nair Hospital and the problem that the accused would get in touch with witnesses could be solved if they were shifted to some other unit.
But the special public prosecutor objected to it stating that all witnesses would be at the hospital, and that most of them were subordinates to the accused.
The court said it was also concerned about the fact that the three accused doctors ‘lacked sensitivity’, which led to the incident of their junior committing suicide.
Justice Jadhav directed the hospital’s gynaecology department head to remain present in the court to say if the accused doctors could be transferred to another unit.
Tadvi, a second-year postgraduate medical student attached to BYL Nair Hospital, committed suicide in her hostel room on the hospital premises on May 22, 2019.