NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday objected to the West Bengal government’s ‘Rattierer Saathi’ programme which stipulated that working hours of women should not exceed 12 hours at a time and prescribed avoiding night duty.A bench comprising Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra expressed surprise that the state government has issued such a notification.The top court said if men are working in more that 12-hour shift, women doctors are also entitled to do so.”How can you say that women will not work in night shifts? Women will have objection if you stop them from working in the night,” it said. Women do not want concessions, but they want equal opportunity.”Why should we prevent a woman doctor from working in the night,” it said.The court ordered that the West Bengal government should immediately correct the notification.”Your duty is to provide security, you cannot say that women (doctors) cannot work at night. Pilots, the army etc all work at night.”This will prejudice their (doctors) careers. The hours of duty should be reasonable for all doctors,” the bench said.The apex court said it is the duty of the state government to provide security to the women doctors working in the night.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), said the Centre could provide security for women doctors if the state government was not willing to provide it.Contending that it was only a temporary security measure, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the West Bengal government, submitted that the state would issue a notification to correct it.
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