Shimla: Himachal High Court on Monday dismissed in limine, a petition filed by a doctor of District Kangra, challenging the orders of his deputation to a Covid Make Shift Hospital in District Una.
The petitioner has alleged in the petition that in the year 2018, he had met with an accident and he remained hospitalized for a period of five months.
He has alleged that he suffered lumber, spine and sacrum injuries in the said accident, and therefore, he would be unable to serve at the place of deputation.
While disposing of the petition, Division Bench comprising Justice Tarlok Singh Chauhan and Justice Chander Bhusan Barowalia observed that the petitioner has failed to realize that the health workers in over-crowded hospitals, the policemen and other front-line workers are already beset with overwhelming load of Covid-19 patients and these workers are exhausted from almost an year of restless fighting against the pandemic.
The Court also observed that the state currently is fighting the grimmest battle against Covid-19 which is nothing short of a disaster culminating in mass deaths and, therefore, it is imperative that the front-line workers are made to work on rotation basis or else the health system is likely to collapse with the sudden and drastic surge in Covid-19 cases.
The petitioner is trying to escape from the duties and responsibilities that have now been assigned to him as there is no contemporaneous records to show that the petitioner is in any manner incapacitated to serve at the transferred station and if the petitioner is fit enough to render his services in District Kangra, why he cannot serve at the Covid Make Shift Hospital, in District Una, maintained the court.
A government servant is a holder of a status and that cannot be made depending on his will, observed the Court.
Once, a person accepts the status as per rules, he no longer remains a simple individual only, but an integral part of governance and at times even in the face of the Government, maintained the Court.
The Court said that in the garb of self-unwillingness to serve, the petitioner cannot be permitted to shirk from his duties and responsibilities and this tendency has to be dealt and curbed with an iron fist.
