Now Reading: Calcutta High Court rejects Abhishek Banerjee’s plea to travel abroad for eye treatment
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Calcutta High Court rejects Abhishek Banerjee’s plea to travel abroad for eye treatment
Calcutta High Court rejects Abhishek Banerjee’s plea to travel abroad for eye treatment
The Calcutta High Court dismissed Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's request to travel abroad for eye treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Wednesday, The Hindu reported. Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said the…
The Calcutta High Court dismissed Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee's request to travel abroad for eye treatment at Johns Hopkins Hospital on Wednesday, The Hindu reported. Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said the court needed an independent medical opinion before allowing overseas treatment and asked Banerjee to appear before a medical board at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata. His counsel, senior advocate Rebecca John, told the court he would not attend the board, after which the judge closed the matter. Around 15 criminal cases are pending against Banerjee, including one over alleged remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Supreme Court had directed the High Court to decide the plea within a week after the High Court had earlier declined an expedited hearing. Banerjee has been treated for eye injuries from a 2016 car accident on the Durgapur Expressway both in India and abroad since.
Indian Opinion Analysis
The dismissal turned on a single procedural fact: Banerjee's team told the bench he would not present himself before the panel it had asked him to see, and the order followed directly from that refusal rather than from any ruling on his eyesight. John told the court that Banerjee wishes to continue his specialised treatment under a medical team at Johns Hopkins, while the State opposed the plea on the ground that there was no medical emergency requiring treatment abroad. Justice Bhattacharya's reference to the cases pending against him explains why the court said it needed to satisfy itself that overseas travel was medically unavoidable. A later appeal, or Banerjee finally appearing before the panel he was asked to see, would be the next visible move in this dispute.
Source: www.thehindu.com
This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above.
