RG Kar hearing: SC orders NTF report to be made available to all states, UTs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court Thursday ordered that the report prepared by the National Task Force (NTF), set up by the Union government on its order in the aftermath of the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of RG Kar Medical College & Hospital in West Bengal’s Kolkata, be made available to Chief Secretaries of all state and Union Territories and other stakeholders, including the doctors’ associations.

A bench, headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, noted that the NTF has formulated recommendations in two categories, first, prevention of violence against medical professionals and providing safe working conditions, and, second, prevention of sexual violence against doctors.

“In order to enable this court to issue directions for compliance with the NTF recommendations, we consider it appropriate to direct that a copy of the report shall be made available to all the counsels appearing in the present batch of proceedings. The report shall also be supplied to the Chief Secretaries of all the states/UTs. In the event, any state/UT intends to make any submission with regard to the recommendations, a brief note of submissions may be filed through the standing counsel to the court master within a period of three weeks,” it said.

The Bench, also comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, pursued the 6th status report filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and said that it would refrain from making any observations since the investigation is underway.

The apex court noted that the trial will commence on November 11 at a special court in Kolkata after charges were framed against the “sole prime accused” in the case, Sanjay Roy. The process of the framing of charges was completed Monday, exactly 87 days after the body of the junior doctor was discovered at a seminar hall within the state-run RG Kar premises on the morning of August 9 this year. Around a month ago, the CBI filed its