The Tamil Nadu Advocate Association has strongly condemned an attack on a team attempting to bury a doctor who died of COVID-19. The Association has also shown its full support to all Doctors, police personnel, sanitary workers and government authorities who are working towards fighting the Corona virus pandemic in this situation.
Dr. Simon Hercules was a 55-year-old neurosurgeon who passed away on Sunday due to COVID-19. Consequently, his family had headed to the Kilpauk cemetery in Chennai to bury him with dignity, but the locals reached the site and attacked the family, friends and even the ambulance driver as they feared burial would spread the virus. Dr. Hercules was later buried in the presence of police security but without his family members being around.
TNAA has expressed their concerns in respect of increase in attacks on health care works and said-
“Health care is under attack. The sanctity of health care, the right to health, and International Humanitarian Law are threatened. Such attacks deprive people of urgently needed care, endanger health care providers, and undermine health systems. While the nation has repeatedly saluted frontline healthcare workers for their service during the coronavirus pandemic, one doctor in Tamil Nadu was robbed of dignity even in death.”
TNAA has urged the State Government to take action against the mob for its unacceptable behaviour and further appealed to the government to put in place a mechanism by which such workers could be protected. Additionally, the Association has extended all legal support in towards safeguarding such workers’ rights.
TNAA said “It is imperative that the Government of Tamil Nadu ensures that health workers are allowed to work at all times without risk, regardless of location, and that the patients and health facilities are protected. Tragedies like this should be avoided by taking all necessary precautionary measures, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice. This attack reflects a worrying trend.”
On this issue, the Madras HC’s Division bench observed:
“In the considered opinion of the Court the scope and ambit of Article 21 includes, right to have a decent burial. It prima facie appears that as a consequence of above said alleged acts, a person who practiced a noble profession as a doctor and breathed his last, has been deprived of his right, to have a burial, in a cemetery earmarked for that purpose and that apart, on account of law and order and public order problem created, the officials who have performed their duties, appeared have sustained grievous injuries”
Read the statement by TN Advocates Association here:
