Fresh petition filed in Calcutta HC on 'threat culture' in Bengal medical colleges

Kolkata, Jan 30
A fresh petition was filed before the Calcutta High Court on Thursday on the alleged "threat culture" prevailing at different medical colleges and hospitals in West Bengal.

A division bench of Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya has admitted the petition and the matter might come up for hearing next week.

The petitioner had claimed that despite lots of dialogues and deliberations on the issue of “threat culture” in the past, there had not been any improvement in the matter as of date.

The petition was filed just a day after a single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta sought a report from the state-run R.G Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata on the allegations of the "threat culture" at that premium medical institute.

In the report, Justice Sengupta directed the R.G. Kar authorities to provide details taken to prevent instances of "threat culture" there as well as the details on whether the accused doctors were given chances to present their sides of arguments in the matter.

The issue of "threat culture" at different state-run medical colleges and hospitals in Kolkata, including R.G. Kar, surfaced following the ghastly rape and murder of a woman junior doctor of the same hospital within the hospital premises in August last year.

The former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar Sandip Ghosh and his close associates were then identified as the main steering personnel behind running this threat culture.

Shortly after that several doctors accused of running that "threat culture" were suspended by the respective college councils. However, the court had stayed such suspensions in many such cases on the grounds that the accused doctors were not allowed to present their sides of the argument.

The court also observed that the state Health Department will have the final say regarding the suspension of the accused doctors.