The Supreme Court on Tuesday while hearing the suo moto case in the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital, Kolkata, and directed the West Bengal government to provide detailed information on the legal basis, qualifications, deployment, and remuneration of civic volunteers involved in the state's institutions, including hospitals.
The top court directed the West Bengal government to give details of recruitment process of Ratire Sathi scheme.
"It is a nice process of conferring political patronage on unverified persons," CJI Chandrachud remarked while hearing the contentions of lawyers raising the issue of Ratire Sathi scheme.
The top court sought complete details of the scheme including the recruitment process of civic volunteers, modalities of recruitment, antecedent verification and the institutions where they would be recruited.
A bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud, and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra directed the West Bengal state government to furnish all details by next hearing. The counsel appearing for the West Bengal government told the court that these civic volunteers are not doing police duties but other parties countered it.
Vrinda Grover, the Counsel appearing for parents of deceased doctor told the court that even the prime accused was a civic volunteer and was attached with police deployed at RG Kar hospital and was staying in police barracks.
Senior Advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing for a doctors' association, raised concern about the 'Ratire Sathi' initiative and said that giving police powers to civilians was disapproved of by the Supreme Court in the Nandini Sundar case (Salwa Judum matter). She added that over 1500 such volunteers are now working in the state of West Bengal now.
The Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala, and Justice Manoj Misra directed West Bengal's counsel Rakesh Dwivedi, to furnish the following information: "(i) The legal source of authority for hiring civic volunteers; (ii) The qualifications; (iii) The institutions in which they are assigned duties; (iv) The payments made on a daily and monthly basis and the budget."