Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court on Wednesday that it had terminated services of 600 medical officers at government hospitals for not attending to the patients during a recent strike of doctors.

A public interest litigation filed by advocate Gunratan Sadavarte claims that as many as 80 patients died as there was nobody to attend to them during the strike period.

The division bench headed by Justice Naresh Patil on Wednesday directed the government to ask an independent agency to find out if these deaths were caused by absence of doctors.

Court also suggested that the government evolve a permanent mechanism to deal with strikes of doctors.

Earlier this month the court had rapped the state for failure to deal with the strike. The court had sought to know whether departmental action had been taken against the doctors who went on strike between July 1 to 7.