Patna: The high court on Wednesday directed the state government to file within a week an affidavit and status report related to filling up of vacant posts of doctors in medical colleges and other government hospitals across Bihar.

A division bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice Anil Kumar Upadhyay on a petition filed by Jitendra Kumar Singh passed the order. In his PIL Singh had said out of 3,200 posts of specialist doctors in the state around 2,000 are vacant, while out of 5,700 posts of medical officers at government hospitals in the state, nearly 1,800 posts were vacant. He has also informed the court that most of the hospitals in the state lack basic infrastructure, including beds, medicines and laboratories.

Singh's counsel Manibhushan Pratap Sengar told the court that the pathetic condition of the hospitals can be gauged from the fact that on several occasions doctors are unavailable in the hospitals. Even medicines and vaccines are not available at the hospitals.

Earlier, a supplementary counter affidavit was filed on behalf of the superintendent, PMCH, which shows that out of the total 574 sanctioned posts of the teaching faculty, 279 were vacant.

The bench had then stated: "It is an alarming situation. But the affidavit is absolutely silent as to how and in what manner, the state is proposing to fill up the vacant posts, if at all the state is willing to do so. The affidavit does not disclose the difficulty, may be of financial or of talent, as to why such vacant posts are not being filled up. Such large number of vacancies is a cause of serious concern so as to provide basic human necessity of medical care by the state."

On Wednesday, along with the affidavit, the government has been directed to file the status report in respect to infrastructure and faculty in the medical colleges in Patna, including Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology. The status report shall also disclose the challenges, which the state or the medical institutes face and the possible remedial action.

The affidavit is to be filed giving specific timeline to fill up the vacant posts of the teaching faculty in the Patna Medical College and Hospital, Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology and in all the medical colleges in Bihar and also furnish the details of vacancy of medical officers in the Bihar Health Service, as the people of the state cannot be made to suffer because of apathetic action of the officials, the court had said.