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

A fresh petition was filed before the Calcutta High Court on Thursday regarding the alleged 'threat culture' prevailing in 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 may come up for hearing next week.

The petitioner has claimed that despite plenty of dialogues and deliberations on the issue of 'threat culture' in the past, there has been no 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 a 'threat culture' at the premium medical institute.

In the report, justice Sengupta directed the R.G. Kar authorities to provide details of action taken to prevent instances of 'threat culture' there as well as details on whether the accused doctors were given chances to present their side of the story in the matter.

The issue of a thriving 'threat culture' in different state-run medical colleges and hospitals in Kolkata, including R.G. Kar, surfaced following the murder and alleged rape of a woman junior doctor of the same hospital within the hospital premises in August 2024. The controversial former R.G. Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and his close associates were then identified as the main driving force behind this threat culture.

Shortly after that, several doctors accused of running the same 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 side of the argument. The court also observed that the state health department will have the final say regarding the suspension of the accused doctors.