PBT president Dr. Kunal Saha filed a writ petition in Calcutta High Court today challenging the decision by the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC) to reject Dr. Saha’s nomination paper to contest in the upcoming council election on the ground that he did not put his name in the proper “style” as “Saha Kunal” as shown in his registration certificate, instead he wrote the name on the nomination paper as “Kunal Saha”. There was no specific direction on the nomination application that the candidate should write their last name first. Ironically, Dr. Saha contested in the last council election and no objection was raised by the WBMC.
In the lawsuit filed today, Dr. Saha has also alleged that the WBMC perhaps rejected Dr. Saha’s nomination papers with a vindictive purpose at the behest of its president and ruling TMC party MLA, Dr. Nirmal Maji. Recently, Dr. Saha lodged a separate criminal case against Dr. Maji under IPC Section 120b (“criminal conspiracy”) and 500/501 (“criminal defamation”). Dr. Maji has been indicted criminally and released on bail awaiting trial. Dr. Saha has also lodged a complaint with the MCI against Dr. Maji seeking to cancel Dr. Maji’s medical registration after he was involved in planning to perform dialysis of a pet dog using the dialysis machine at SSKM Hospital, a premier government hospital in Kolkata potentially putting the lives of countless human patients at serious danger. Dr. Saha’s appeal with MCI is still pending for final adjudication. Dr. Saha has come to India to argue this and other cases on behalf of victims of alleged medical negligence in person.
