A Peshawar High Court bench ruled in a recent judgment that private hospitals are bound to pay stipend to their house job medical officers that is equivalent to the highest amount paid by any public sector hospital in the province.

The judgment was delivered by a bench comprising senior puisne judge Justice Roohul Amin Khan and Justice Syed Arshad Ali on Feb 4, 2021, wherein it declared as illegal the discriminatory treatment meted out to several of the doctors doing their house job in three private sector hospitals.

In its detailed order, the court ordered that these doctors should be paid Rs56,000 as monthly stipend instead of the existing Rs43,000.

Experts said that the judgment would benefit hundreds of such house officers who had not been paid stipend equivalent to that of a public sector health facility.

In the 13-page detailed judgment authored by Justice Roohul Amin, the bench explained and looked into provisions of different existing and former laws related to the issue along with judgments of superior courts and had reached the conclusion that the petitioners were entitled to stipend equivalent to the highest amount of stipend paid to the house job officers of public sector hospitals in the province.

The petitioners in the three petitions have completed their MBBS degrees from private medical colleges namely Rehman Medical College (RMC) and Pak International Medical College (PIM), both in Peshawar, and Women Medical and Dental College (WM&DC), Abbottabad, in year 2020 and had started their house jobs in the private sector hospitals of these colleges.

Advocate Ijaz Khan Sabi appeared for the petitioners and had stated that under agreements his clients were compelled by the respondents (private colleges/ hospitals) to receive Rs43,000 per month each, as stipend during the period of their house job, whereas in the leading public sector hospitals namely Lady Reading Hospital (LRH) and Khyber Teaching Hospital (KTH), Peshawar, Rs56,000 and Rs53,000 per month, respectively, were being paid to the house job officers.

The lawyer stated that under Regulation 21 of MBBS and BDS (Admission, House Job and Internship) Regulations, 2018, framed under the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Ordinance, 1964, the respondents were bound to pay stipend amount to them which should not be less than the highest amount paid in any public sector hospital of that province.

He stated that against the discriminatory treatment of the respondents meted out to the petitioners, they had approached the respective respondents for redressal of their grievance, but they refused.

The petitioners had requested the court to declare as illegal the refusal of respondents to pay monthly stipend to the petitioners equal to the highest amount of stipend paid to the house job officers of public sector hospitals and to direct the respondents to pay the petitioners their monthly stipend of Rs56,000 per month.

The private medical colleges/hospitals had refuted claims of the petitioners on various legal and factual grounds. Their main objection to the petitions was that MBBS and BDS (Admissions, House Job and Internship) Regulations, 2018, were repealed through the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council Ordinance, 2019, and as such these regulations no longer existed in the field.

In its detailed judgment, the bench did not agree with the opinion of the respondents observing that the Ordinance of 2019 had already been declared ultra vires to the Constitution of Pakistan by the Islamabad High Court through a judgment delivered on Jan 8, 2020.

In the said judgment, the bench observed that by declaring the 2019 Ordinance as ultra vires the IHC had ruled that the affairs of the PMDC had to be regulated under the PMDC Ordinance 1962 which stood revived in its original position.

The bench ruled that in view of the IHC judgment the Regulation of 2018, as amended in 2019, got restored and the provisions thereof with regard to stipend amount were applicable at the time of joining of house job of the petitioners.

The court ruled that Section 27 of Pakistan Medical Commission Act of 2020, the newly-enacted law in the field, also provided the said provision related to stipend of house job officers.

Mere silence of the 2019 Ordinance, which died its natural death as lapsed after 120 days i.e. in Feb 2020, would not be a sufficient reason to deprive the petitioners of their due entitlement.

About the agreements executed by the respondents (private medical colleges) with the petitioners with effect from June 8, 2020, the bench ruled that these agreements were after the lapse of stipulated period of the Ordinance of 2019.

“Needless to say that any agreement signed by an employee/worker against the statutory provisions of law would be void and will not create any estoppel against the signatory,” the court ruled.

The bench observed that completion of house job training was essential for candidates and without payment of the remuneration as fixed by the PMC Act 2020 their duties amounted to forced labour by the private medical sector.

The bench has also referred to a judgment of the Supreme Court delivered in Human Rights case No 38513 of 2018 (regarding stipend of house officer graduate of private medical colleges) wherein it was mentioned that it was the obligation of the concerned private college to provide its graduates house jobs in their own respective hospitals and pay them as other fresh doctors were being paid by public sector hospitals.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2021