In what could be music to the ears of government doctors who went on an indefinite strike last week demanding better wages, Justice N. Kirubakaran of the Madras High Court on Monday flayed the State government for paying them much less than what government schoolteachers and personal assistants to judges were drawing.
The judge broached the subject while presiding over a Division Bench along with Justice P. Velmurugan to hear a writ appeal related to alleged irregularities in filling up the NRI quota seats in self-financing medical colleges in the State. “We are doing injustice to doctors. They should be paid more for their divine work,” he said.
Stating that many top rankholders in medical degree examinations had got enrolled themselves in government service, the judge wondered how could the government pay just ₹57,000 a month to doctors who serve the poor for long hours every day. He was of the view that the government was not justified in paying such less salary.
When Additional Advocate General P.H. Arvindh Pandian told the judge that government doctors in Tamil Nadu were paid more than their counterparts in other States, he refused to accept the submission and said: “Even a government schoolteacher will get ₹57,000 a month. Our PAs (personal assistants) are getting ₹65,000 a month. If you pay so less, then the government doctors will not work properly.”
