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Calcutta high court permits appearance by video conference

The Calcutta high court on Monday allowed Dr Kunal Saha, a non-resident Indian, to appear in a video conference from the United States of America at the Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited premises in Calcutta in the Anuradha Saha death case.

This is for the first time the high court has allowed video conferencing in a case. The hearing related to the complaints made by Dr Saha alleging that his wife Anuradha died of rash and negligent treatment by three physicians.

Anuradha Saha died allegedly owing to rash and negligent treatment by three physicians from Calcutta - Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, Dr Abani Roy Chowdhury and Dr Baidyanath Haldar.

Dr Saha filed a petition before a Calcutta court praying for punishment for the three doctors. The case is pending before a trial court.

The trial court had issued arrest warrants against the three physicians following Dr Saha's allegation. Challenging the arrest warrants, the physicians moved the Calcutta high court.

The high court upheld the trial court's order in case of Dr Haldar and Dr Mukherjee, but acquitted Dr Roy Chowdhury of the charges. But the Supreme Court directed Dr Roy Chowdhury to face the trial.

Dr Saha, now staying in the USA, appealed before the high court for permission to appear via video conference from the USA as visiting Calcutta during hearings would involve huge expenditure.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice A K Mathur and Justice Barin Ghosh approved of the video conference to be organised by V-Span in the USA, which would co-ordinate with VSNL in India. Dr Saha would appear on video before members of the penal and ethical committee of the West Bengal Medical Council.

The conference would have to be held within two weeks after fixing a date, which should be notified, by the West Bengal Medical Council, to Dr Saha's counsel Piyus Dutta within ten days from Monday.

After the video conference, Dr Saha would have to submit a tape recorded statement, signed by him, to the council.

Dr Saha's wife Anuradha died at Breach Candy hospital, Bombay, in May, 1998. She was initially admitted to the Advanced Medical Research Institute and, later, taken to a nursing home in Calcutta. She was shifted to Breach Candy in Bombay when her condition deteriorated.

Earlier, the trial court had maintained that it required a personal appearance by Dr Saha before the penal and ethical committee of the medical council and it could not be substituted by a video conference.

UNI

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