A high court division bench of Acting Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh on Thursday directed the health department to submit the names of junior doctors who are on strike at the state medical colleges.

The court directed joint secretary (health) Shekhar Chandra Verma, who was present in court on Thursday, to present the list before the bench on Friday, when the matter will be heard again.

The high court took up the issue after social activist Vikas Chandra alias Guddu Baba showed the bench a few news clippings on the ongoing strike.

The court had passed a judgment in 2008 where it had asked the government enforce the provisions of the Bihar Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1947 which prohibits doctors from going on strike because medical service comes under the category of essential service.

The court also said that a petitioner could approach the bench if the act was breached.

The state government did not impose the act even though the junior doctors at Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) were on strike since Sunday night. Junior doctors of other medical colleges, including Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (Bhagalpur), Shri Krishna Medical College and Hospital (Muzaffarpur), Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (Gaya), Darbhanga Medical College, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, joined the strike from Monday. Doctors at Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna had joined the strike on Wednesday evening.

Most of the doctors, however, reported on duty, barring a few at Darbhanga.

The situation remained grim at PMCH till Thursday evening as only 60 of the 600 junior doctors had returned to duty. The protesters are demanding the suspension of principal S.N. Sinha, claiming that he had supported police action against them while they tried to protect themselves from the wrath of residents who had entered the hospital premises on Sunday evening after death of a patient.

Sinha said the charges levelled against him were baseless.

Sources at the health department said the government was avoiding direct action against the doctors, hoping that good sense would prevail.

"Any further decision on the government's stand will be clear after the high court directive," said a source.

The department has deputed an additional 112 doctors at PMCH to tackle the problem. Security has been beefed up to avoid any untoward incident. But despite all efforts, patient inflow remained low on Thursday with a little above 1,300 hundred turning up at the hospital against the normal 2,000 at the out patient department.