The Delhi Medical Council (DMC) has termed the strike observed by Resident Doctors Association (RDA) of All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) as illegal. Condemning the strike, the council said it will soon come up with a memorandum regarding the issue and that unnecessary strike will not be tolerated.

Dr Girish Tyagi, registrar of DMC, said: "We know the security of doctors at hospitals is an important issue, there are guidelines for patient-doctor relationship. Now, there is a need to set guidelines for teacher-student relationship too. But conducting unnecessary strikes at the hospital is irrelevant. Patients should not suffer because of agitating medicos. Therefore, we may take action against them." Tyagi said that violence against doctors by patients attendants is on a rise, so the hospital administration should focus on a robust security system.

Meanwhile, the internal probe committee of AIIMS may give clean chit to (Prof) Atul Kumar, who allegedly slapped a junior doctor (Dr Vinit Mutha) on the basis that he made written apologies to the administration and a junior doctor.

Dr Kumar was chief and professor at Ophthalmology at Dr Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences (RPC-AIIMS). He has handed over the command of eye centre to (Prof) Dr Pradeep Sharma as an acting chief till inquiry is complete. Sources in the committee said: "Since the senior faculty has apologised to AIIMS authorities and junior doctor has accepted his apology, there may not be any action taken against him." Dr Satish Chawdhary, an AIIMS alumnus based in the UK, wrote to the AIIMS director saying AIIMS is known worldwide for its quality of medical teachers. "It takes decades to build and nurture such teachers, losing them in a precipitate manner is not wise at all."