HC allows medical students accused of running threat culture, to attend classes and exams
Telegraph | 20 November 2024
The high court on Tuesday allowed five undergraduate students at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital to write their exams and attend classes, turning down a decision by the college barring the five from academic activities following allegations that they ran a “threat culture” on the campus.
Justice Jay Sengupta asked the North Bengal Medical College authorities to allow the students to write their papers and attend classes.
The students have already missed some papers and whether they will be allowed to write them separately will be decided later, the court said.
The five students approached the high court on November 13 after the college authorities told them they would not be allowed to write the upcoming examinations.
The court’s written order said: “In view of the admission made on behalf of the respondent College authorities that an adequate opportunity of hearing was not provided to the petitioners before suspending them for six months, it would only be fair and just to allow them to attend classes and sit for the examinations, which are taking place now.”
The order added that “the petitioners shall not enter the premises of the Medical College for any other purpose”.
Suman Sengupta, a lawyer for the medical college, told The Telegraph: “The decision to not allow the students to attend classes or write their papers was taken under compelling circumstances.”
Advocate Kalyan Banerjee, who appeared for the students, told reporters that the college did not issue the students any chargesheet.
“The suspended students were not given any documents. The decision was not taken by the anti-ragging committee. The students were not given any chargesheet,” said Banerjee, also a Trinamool MP.
Advocates appearing for the parties involved in the case said the college council suspended the students from academic activities for one semester. They were also asked to vacate the hostels.
When the November examinations were approaching, the suspended students sought clarification from the college authorities on whether they could write their papers. The authorities told them on November 12 that they could not.
After that the students approached the high court, said an advocate.
Indrajit Saha, the principal of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital, did not answer calls from this newspaper on Tuesday evening.
Allegations of malpractice and “threat culture” were raised against many junior doctors and students by another section of junior doctors and students at government medical colleges after the campuses erupted in protests following the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9.
At RG Kar, a section of junior doctors had filed similar complaints against 59 senior residents, junior doctors, interns and a research scholar.
The college ordered punishments against 53 of them based on the nature of the complaints and the available evidence against them.
Six others were let off with warnings.
In October, a vacation bench of the high court stayed the punitive actions announced by the RG Kar authorities. The matter was to be heard on Tuesday but was postponed.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee had expressed her disapproval of such stringent action taken by the RG Kar authorities bypassing the health department.