The Government of Maharashtra should not allow the 3 casteist upper caste accused who abetted Dr. Payal Tadvi, a doctor from the tribal community, to commit suicide by racially abusing her and under any circumstances should not support racist and criminal tendencies.
The case of the three accused racist doctors was heard in the Supreme Court on August 11, 2020. Siddharth Luthra, a very expensive lawyer, defended the accused. Payal’s mother Abeda Tadvi was represented by senior and well-known lawyer Indira Jaysingh, advocate Sunil Fernandes and advocate Disha Wadekar.

Why a case in the Supreme Court?

On August 9, 2019, the Bombay High Court barred all the three accused lady doctors from entering the premises of Topiwala Medical College (Nair Hospital, Mumbai). The court had ordered that the accused would influence the witnesses there. Then, the accused requested the court to allow them to study in another medical college. But advocates arguing on his behalf strongly argued that there is no such thing in law allowing migration for postgraduate education. The High Court, therefore, rejected the plea of the accused.

To challenge that order, the accused filed a Special Leave Petition SLP in the Supreme Court. In an earlier hearing, the apex court upheld the High Court’s order barring the accused girls from re-entering Nair for further education. But the accused immediately demanded that they be allowed to complete their postgraduate studies in another medical college. In a previous hearing, the apex court had directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) to state its position on the issue. MCI’s counsel Gaurav Sharma presented his case on August 11.

What happened at the hearing in the Supreme Court on August 11, 2020?

MCI told the apex court that there were two instances of transfers to other medical colleges for postgraduate studies in very exceptional circumstances – In the first instance due to closure of a medical college in Jhajjar in Haryana and in another instance due to fire tragedy the students were temporarily shifted to another medical college.

Indira Jaisingh argued that the High Court had laid down conditions for granting bail to the accused and the denial of permission to transfer to another college was one of the important conditions. Therefore, there is currently no provision in the Migration Rules to allow the accused to migrate. Therefore, migration should not be allowed.

The apex court issued notice to Nair Hospital, Mumbai in a hearing on August 11, 2020, and directed it to file a statement in the hearing on August 31, 2020.

It also directed the Maharashtra government to state whether the accused could be allowed to pursue further education in the Mumbai Municipal Corporation or other state government colleges.

Now the role of the Maharashtra government is very important and the Maharashtra government should not allow the accused to pursue further education in other medical colleges and should not support the accused of racist harassment because –

1) The police investigation has revealed that Payal committed suicide as all the three accused tortured Dr. Payal out of the casteist mentality and this has been mentioned in the charge-sheet filed in the Sessions Court.
2) It is clear from the actual CCTV camera footage and other investigations that all the three accused had committed a serious crime of trying to destroy the evidence by entering her room unauthorized after Payal’s suicide.
3) When a case was registered against the accused, the accused fled without informing the college and disappeared for a few days and was arrested by the police from various places. This also shows the criminal mentality of the accused and their tendency not to cooperate with the police.
4) The college itself had suspended the accused for fleeing.
5) The cases of allowing migration to other medical colleges are very exceptional and in one case the fire broke out in the college and in the other case, the college was closed.
6) To date, there is not a single instance of any accused being transferred to another medical college for committing a crime.
7) Allowing the accused in very serious crimes like racism and incitement to suicide, destruction of evidence, etc., to allow them to study in another medical college under any circumstances is tantamount to supporting the accused.

Hence, IADF appeals all Ambedkarite, Adivasi, Right- based organizations and parties to request Maharashtra government to deny migration to the accused who compelled Payal Tadavi to commit suicide on basis of Caste discrimination and harassment.