New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday put under scrutiny recruitment of civic volunteers under West Bengal‘s ‘Ratirer Sathi‘ scheme, floated after the RG Kar hospital rape-murder incident in which an earlier similarly engaged volunteer is the prime accused, and said such hirings cannot be a device to confer political patronage.
“Recruitment of civic volunteers cannot be a nice process to confer political patronage on unverified persons,” said a bench of CJI D Y Chandrachud, and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. It sought details of recruitment process from the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC govt in three weeks while barring their deployment in hospitals and schools till further orders.
Senior advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing for a doctors’ association in Kolkata, requested the bench to restrain govt from allowing civic volunteers under ‘Ratirer Sathi’ scheme, which aims to ensure safety and security of women working night shifts, from handling police duties.
“One such civic volunteer is the prime accused in RG Kar hospital incident,” she said. Senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for West Bengal, told the bench that earlier the civic volunteers, including the “gentleman” who is an accused in the rape-murder incident, were recruited under a 2011 police order.
“I am referring to the accused as a gentleman as he is yet not convicted. The civic volunteers under the ‘Ratirer Sathi’ scheme are being recruited under the central law – the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005, which applies to all states and UTs,” Dwivedi said.
The bench asked West Bengal to file an affidavit in three weeks giving details on the following – the legal source of authority for recruitment of civic volunteers, eligibility qualification and criteria, verification of antecedents, institutions where these volunteers are to be deployed, salary to be paid to them, monthly outlay and budgetary allocation, and the selection process. WB is in the process of recruiting 1,514 additional civic volunteers, of which 910 would be females.
