New Delhi, Sept 7: The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea filed by former principal of Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital Sandip Ghosh challenging a Calcutta High Court order rejecting his petition to be added as a party to a case of alleged financial irregularities at the institute on his watch.
A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said as an accused Ghosh has no locus standi (legal right to approach court) to be impleaded in the matter.
The high court had on August 23 transferred the probe into the alleged financial irregularities from a state-constituted Special Investigation Team (SIT) to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“You were a principal of the college when the incident took place. As an accused you have no locus (standi) to intervene in the PIL, where the Calcutta high court is monitoring the investigation,” the bench said.
R G Kar Medical College and Hospital is in the eye of a raging political storm and widespread street protests following an incident of rape and murder of a junior doctor on its premises.
The medic’s body with severe injury marks was found in the seminar hall of the hospital’s chest department on August 9. A civic volunteer was arrested by the Kolkata Police in connection with the case the following day.
At the outset, senior advocate Meenakshi Arora, appearing for Ghosh, said he was not objecting to the CBI enquiry but was aggrieved at certain adverse remarks made by the high court.
She said the high court passed the order on a PIL filed by a former staff of the hospital Akhtar Ali which was limited to the issue of biomedical waste.
“The PIL does not state any nexus with this particular incident (rape and murder). How could the high court have passed the order with the observations? I fail to understand that the high court comes to the conclusion about the apparent nexus (between rape-murder and alleged irregularities),” Arora said.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the CBI, said an accused cannot direct the manner in which the probe should proceed.
“Let us not stultify the investigation. We are also asking the CBI to file status reports before us,” the bench said while dismissing the plea.
The high court’s August 23 order had come on a petition by a former deputy superintendent of the facility Akhtar Ali, who sought a probe by the Enforcement Directorate into alleged financial misconduct at the hospital under Ghosh. (PTI)
