Pay Bond or get Arrested, lose property: Gujarat Govt to Doctors

Asking the doctors to pay the bond amount executed during admission to PG medical courses, the Government in the notices have mentioned for attachment of their properties or properties belonging to the guarantors who stood for them to execute the bond at the beginning of their studies.

If the doctors do not pay the bond amount and discharge themselves from the mandatory bond service for three years, the properties belonging to the doctors, their legal heirs or guarantors would be attached and put on auction for recovering the Rs 10 lakh bond amount, warned the notices, as per TOI. Moreover, the Government has also warned the doctors of a possible arrest and a jail term if they fail to pay the amount.

The notices have been issued in September under the provisions of the Bombay Land Revenue Code, and already around 45 doctors have complied with the Government's communications and have freed themselves from the liability by paying the bond amount.

All of this comes after the State Government had ordered the doctors who had pursued their medical education at government medical colleges and had not discharged their bonds yet to join COVID duty.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that when the doctors ignored the Government order calling them to join the bond service, the Commissioner of Health, operative under Gujarat Government had issued an order on June 20 to all district health officers and medical officers of the municipal corporations, asking them to direct concerned police stations to lodge FIRs against 799 doctors under provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Challenging such a direction from the Government, around 251 postgraduate and super-specialty doctors practising in Gujarat had moved the Gujarat High Court.

In a petition filed before the High Court, the doctors had submitted that although they agreed to submit the bond amount to be released from the liabilities of the compulsory service, the Government refused to accept it.

Also Read: 251 Doctors under Bond Service move Gujarat HC challenging Govt's FIR order

As per the latest media report by the Times of India, now the Government has issued notice to these doctors asking them to pay the bond amount at the earliest and warned them of attaching the properties belonging to the doctors, their legal heirs or guarantors for recovering the bond amount. In fact, if the Governments fail to pay the amount, the Government has warned of putting them behind bars and have informed of sending a proposal in this respect to the collectors and district magistrates.

The daily adds that in some cases, the medical college authorities have sent notices to the ex students and have asked them to pay the bond amount for getting themselves discharged from their bond liabilities. Further, the medicos have been warned that if they do not pay within a seven day period, the bank guarantee issued at the time of their admission would be forfeited.

Meanwhile, during the case hearing of the petition filed by the 251 doctors, the counsel representing the petitioner doctors, Amit Panchal raised the issue and responding to the same, the counsel representing the Government promised the court that the authorities would be directed to slow down their actions against the doctors.