The legal battle of Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Abhishek Banerjee has taken a turn with the Supreme Court of India turning back his foreign travel plea to the Calcutta High Court. Diamond Harbour MP had approached the top court to be allowed to travel abroad for the treatment of his eye condition and expressed his protest on the earlier decision and conditions of the state's high court.
The case came up for hearing before a bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice V. Mohana and after listening to the arguments of both sides, the Supreme Court ordered the case to be sent back to the Calcutta High Court where the matter is currently pending before the bench of Justice Saugata Bhattacharya. While returning the petition, however, the Supreme Court asked the High Court to consider the case more expeditiously so that the medical procedures for the parliamentarian could not be unnecessarily delayed.
The dispute began with Abhishek Banerjee's legal applications for permission to travel overseas for specialized ophthalmological treatment. At a previous hearing on July 20 at the Calcutta High Court, Justice Bhattacharya asked whether the MP had met local eye hospitals in Kolkata before attempting to seek international medical aid. Banerjee's legal counsel has long-standing medical records and has been treated in the United States for the same disease, making continuity of care essential, they said.
The state government opposed his travel plea abroad strongly. The state counsel maintained that the top political leader had multiple criminal cases and investigations going on and granting him permission to leave the country would potentially hinder ongoing investigation and legal culpability.
The High Court, taking into account these competing arguments, directed Banerjee to first consult the head of the ophthalmology department at the state-run SSKM Hospital for a comprehensive medical evaluation. The court's earlier directive said if local expert physicians were able to formally conclude that the specific eye condition could not be treated in Kolkata and foreign medical intervention is necessary, then professional advice would be taken into account by the court. The High Court said the decision would be based on the current situation and medical necessity and not on general requests.
In the wake of that order, Banerjee approached the Supreme Court last Tuesday and claimed that he had cooperated with the investigation agencies in every case, submitting his voice samples to them and was frustrated that the medical requests for surgery have got dragged out for too long in a long line of bureaucratic and judicial proceedings. Now that the Supreme Court has handed the matter back to the Calcutta High Court for a quick review and to decide what to do, the Calcutta High Court has decided in advance what to do with Banerjee’s overseas travel permissions.
