The Bombay HC has asked for directions so doctors "cannot resort to such strikes in future". If protest is closed, what is left?

On 6 August the Bombay High Court ordered striking residents back to work, warned that their wages could be stopped, and — this is the part that deserves our attention — appointed amicus curiae to prepare a petition seeking directions so that doctors cannot resort to such strikes in future.

The Court's reasoning is not easy to dismiss. Acting Chief Justice Ghuge put it directly: a factory strike costs money; a doctors' strike may cost lives. "Can they bring back dead patients to life?" Anyone who has run a casualty knows the honest answer.

And yet.

Residents did not strike casually. They struck because a decision they consider unsafe was notified while a petition on the same subject was already pending, and because the ordinary channels — representations, associations, correspondence — had produced nothing. Duty-hour rules go unenforced. Stipend rules go unenforced. When lawful avenues reliably produce silence, withdrawal of labour is what remains.

If the courts now close that too, the profession is left with formal channels that don't work and informal ones that are barred.

So I want this assembly to answer the question the Court has effectively asked us:

What is the legitimate escalation ladder for Indian doctors? Not rhetoric — an actual sequence. Representation, to whom, with what response time? Independent grievance body with binding powers? Statutory arbitration? Work-to-rule with emergency services fully staffed? A "protest with full essential services" model?

And where is your own line? Most of us accept that ICU and emergency care must continue regardless. Is elective-only withdrawal legitimate? Black badges? Mass leave?

Here is the honest opportunity: if this profession can describe a credible alternative to striking, we can put it to the Court before 8 September rather than merely being ruled about. If we cannot, we should stop pretending the strike is a strategy rather than a symptom.