New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on December 10 issued notice to the Medical Council of India (MCI) on a petition by an NRI (Non-Resident Indian) doctor seeking disciplinary action against two Kolkata-based doctors for their alleged professional misconduct while treating his wife who later died in Kolkata, four years ago.

Taking cognisance of a writ petition by US-based NRI doctor Kunal Saha, seeking a direction to the MCI, the governing body for doctors in the country, to take immediate steps for disciplinary action against doctor Sukumar Mukherjee and doctor Baidyanath Halder, Justice Manmohan Sarin asked the Council to submit its reply within four weeks.

Saha's counsel M N Krishnamani pleaded the Court to issue direction to the MCI so that it could further instruct the West Bengal Medical Council to initiate action against the two Kolkata doctors under the Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics Regulations, 2002.

The NRI doctor in his petition claimed that a judicial magistrate of South 24-Paragana, Alipur, had found Mukherjee and Haldar guilty of negligence in treating his wife Anuradha Saha when she fell ill during their visit to Kolkata in 1998.

They were convicted by the Alipur court to three months rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 3000 each but the MCI had not taken any disciplinary action against the doctors, Saha's counsel submitted.

Under Section 7.5 of the Code of Ethics Regulations, as stipulated in the amended MCI Act, it is categorically stated that any criminal conviction of a doctor will make him liable for disciplinary action for professional misconduct, he said.

PTI