Calcutta HC junks Sandip Ghosh’s plea to fast-track hearing on cancelled registration

On Monday, 14 October, a vacation bench of Calcutta High Court rejected a plea by Sandip Ghosh, the former principal of R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital, seeking a fast-track hearing in the matter of the cancellation of his medical registration by the West Bengal Medical Council in September.

Rejecting the plea, the vacation bench of Justice Partha Sarathi Sen observed that the matter is not so urgent that it has to be heard by the vacation bench when the operations of the regular bench of Calcutta High Court are closed because of the festive season vacation.

Ghosh was arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the financial irregularities case in R.G. Kar. Later, the CBI sleuths also showed him as arrested on charges of misleading the investigation and tampering with evidence when the probe was initially being carried out by the Kolkata Police.

The CBI also arrested Abhijit Mondal, former SHO of Tala police station, under whose jurisdiction R.G. Kar comes, with the same charges. On September 18, the West Bengal Medical Council announced the cancellation of his registration and the formal notification on this count was issued by the council on September 19.

On September 7, the West Bengal Medical Council issued a show-cause notice to Ghosh asking him to give a reply to the notice within three days. As Ghosh was in CBI custody, he was unable to give a reply to the notice which made the cancellation of his registration as a doctor inevitable.

Since the time of his arrest in the financial irregularities case, there have been demands from the medical fraternity in West Bengal for the cancellation of his medical registration.

Even the former Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member, Santanu Sen, who is himself a medical practitioner, became vocal in this demand. At that point in time the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had sent a communique to the council for immediate cancellation of Ghosh’s medical registration.