KOLKATA, June 26, 2006
IANS
The Calcutta High Court on Monday rejected a plea
by the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) against
a US-based Indian-born scientist fighting a case of
medical negligence and also to hold a full hearing
of his appeal.
A division bench of the court fixed the hearing of
two appeals by noted Ohio-based AIDS researcher Kunal
Saha, fighting a case of alleged medical negligence
leading to his wife Anuradha's death in 1998, for
a full hearing on Wednesday.
Saha has appealed against the dismissal of his petition
by a single-judge high court bench in which he had
complained that the WBMC had deliberately acquitted
the primary accused, Sukumar Mukherjee, for 'medical
negligence' causing the death of his wife.
In a separate but related appeal, Saha has accused
that WBMC president Ashok Chowdhury was "biased".
Saha recently suffered a legal setback when his claim
seeking Rs 770 million or $17 million - India's biggest
medical negligence compensation claim - from five
city-based doctors, including eminent physician Mukherjee,
and the AMRI hospital was dismissed by the National
Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) in
New Delhi on June 1.
In its judgement, the commission relied on the WBMC
findings and observed that when an experts' body has
already found no wrong with the treatment, a consumer
court cannot hold the doctors guilty.
Saha has vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court against
the NCDRC judgment after the apex court reopens on
July 3 following the vacation.