New Delhi, June 17: The Supreme Court on Wednesday slammed the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government for failing to protect the doctors and health workers from being attacked while on duty to serve COVID-19 patients. The apex court bench directed the Union territory government to support the doctors and nurses, instead of threatening them.

Taking a suo motu cognisance of improper treatment of doctors and health workers, the three judge bench of Justices Ashok Bushan, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MR Shah slammed the Delhi government. The bench said, as quoted by news agency ANI, "What has Delhi done? Please protect doctors, nurses. They are #Corona warriors. You (Delhi govt) do not want the truth to come out. Several videos have come out." Adding more, the bench said, "Don't shoot the messenger, don't threaten doctors and health workers, support them." Doctors, Healthcare Workers Treating Coronavirus Patients Shouldn't Be Denied Quarantine Facilities And Salary Payment, Says Supreme Court.

Here's what the Supreme Court said:

Earlier, the same bench also heared the petition filed by a doctor Dr Arushi Jain on separate facilities and timely salaries, among others, for COVID19 frontline health workers. After hearing the bench passed the order non-adherence to the directions by Chief Secretaries of states will be deemed as an offence under the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

Following this, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta told Supreme Court that the Central government had already issued a circular saying that the salaries must be paid to doctors and other health care staff, the Chief Secretaries of states must ensure this. Any violation of this, will attract punishment, he added.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 17, 2020 01:51 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).