(This story originally appeared in on Mar 22, 2017)

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Tuesday sharply criticised the protest ing resident doctors' at government-run hospitals across Maharashtra on the second day of their 'strike' for the impact it was having on patients. But the young doctors remained firm in their demand for adequate security to protect them from recent attacks by enraged relatives of patients in Dhule, and Sion in Mumbai.Hundreds of patients were seriously inconvenienced as hospitals cancelled surgeries and OPDs remained shut due to over 4,000 resident doctors across the state going on mass casual leave in protest.Hearing a PIL filed by activist Afak Mandaviya seeking action against the doctors, a division bench of Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice G S Kulkarni described their behaviour as “shameful“. “It is a shame on the profession if doctors go on strike like factory men; then they are unfit to be doctors,“ the bench said. The judges also questioned the rationale for resident doctors staying away from work when senior doctors in the same government hospitals felt safe.The petitioner's advocate, Datta Mane, said 58 patients had died across the state due to the strike. The court said the resident doctors should resign. The bench also described the attacks on doctors as “public anarchy“. “There can be some cases of negligence by doctors but every case cannot be of negligence,“ the court said.When Mane told the court that the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) had last year assured the HC that it would not call for or go on strikes in the future, the bench said, “If that is the case, then the protesting doctors have committed contempt. The concerned hospital management should initiate action against them.“ Meanwhile, the striking doctors received support from the Indian Medical Association (IMA). Dr Parthiv Sanghvi , state secretary, IMA, said, “We have only one demand. The Supreme Court had clearly laid down protocols of providing security for doctors commensurate with the number of ICU beds, and this should be implemented.“Dr Singhvi said the Doctors' Protection Act, 2010, has stringent provisions, but the act has not been used widely by the police in cases of violence against doctors. “The act makes any violence against a doctor in a medical care institution non-bailable, and has a provision for three years imprisonment with a Rs 50,000 fine. It also provides that attackers will be made to pay twice the compensation of the damage caused to the institution,“ he said. Another doctor said the accused arrested for attacking the doctor at Sion hospital had been let off on bail in 24 hours, and demanded his rearrest.Apart from adequate security at key entrance and exits of intensive care units and OPDs, the resident doctors want hospitals to regularly screen patients' relatives before they enter sections where critically ill patients are kept. “Only two relatives of patients should be allowed inside the emergency care sections. How do you expect us to work under fear?“ said a resident doctor.Dr Singhvi said dean of government hospitals had a fund at their disposal to hire private security, but it wasn't being fully utilised. However, many hospitals Mirror contacted showed that hospitals were already hiring security guards from private agencies to beef up existing security.