Calcutta High Court dismisses Abhishek Banerjee plea for overseas eye treatment

The Story in Brief

The Calcutta High Court on 5 August 2026 dismissed Trinamool Congress national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s plea seeking permission to travel abroad for eye treatment. A Single Bench led by Justice Saugata Bhattacharya said the court was not a medical expert and required an independent opinion; it asked Banerjee to appear before a medical board at SSKM Hospital in Kolkata to assess whether overseas treatment was indispensable, but his counsel said he would not appear. Senior Advocate Rebecca John said Banerjee wished to continue specialised care at Johns Hopkins Hospital in the United States. The court noted he had sought a seven-day visit but held the treatment could be carried out in India and dismissed the application, noting about 15 criminal cases pending against him, including one filed by Rajib Sarkar over alleged remarks about Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Banerjee was injured in a 2016 car accident on the Durgapur Expressway and has had earlier treatment both in Calcutta and abroad. The Supreme Court had directed the High Court to dispose of the matter within a week.

The Indian Opinion

The legal dispute sits at the intersection of health needs and ongoing criminal proceedings. Claims that overseas care is indispensable are serious but here remain unverified because the petitioner declined the SSKM medical board’s assessment. Conversely, public statements that portray the court’s decision as purely punitive overlook the court’s stated need for an independent medical opinion and its note of multiple pending cases. An ordinary reader should recognise that neither the medical necessity for Johns Hopkins nor the motives behind the plea are fully settled on the published record; clarity would come from an impartial medical report and further court orders.

Original article: Calcutta High Court dismisses Abhishek Banerjee’s plea to visit abroad for eye treatment (www.thehindu.com)

This story was summarised and commented on by AI from the source linked above.