The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday ordered issue of notices to the State government and other authorities on a petition filed by a doctor working in the State-run Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health (IGICH) seeking directions to hold enquiries on her complaints about alleged harassment at the workplace and irregularities in hospital administration.
Justice A.S. Bopanna passed the order on a petition filed by Dr. Alkarani T. Patil, an Associate Professor at IGICH, Bengaluru.
She is allegedly being ‘harassed, bullied and discriminated against’ as she is a lady doctor by a senior colleague and the medical superintendent. The medical superintendent allegedly ‘uses filthy abusive words against her in front of her colleagues... and has deliberately isolated her from other colleagues by threatening them’. She alleged that the institute had failed to conduct an enquiry into her allegations despite a direction issued by the Karnataka State Commission for Women.
She has alleged in the petition that the promotion prospects of several senior associate professors, including that of the petitioner, who have served the institution sincerely for the past several decades, are in jeopardy and blocked by the two doctors who are related to each other.
The petitioner has also alleged that the IGICH has been violating norms of the Medical Council of India (MCI).
The court also ordered issue of notices to the IGICH, the MCI and the commission.
