Mamata serves legal notice to doctors over medical records; asks 'how they reached Suvendu'

Trinamool Congress chief and former West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has served a legal notice over the alleged unauthorised disclosure of her 2021 medical records, demanding an explanation on how the documents reached West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari and were subsequently made public.

The notice, sent through Banerjee’s lawyer Arka Nag, has been addressed to senior doctors and administrators associated with state-run SSKM Hospital and the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences. A copy has also been forwarded to the Principal Secretary of the West Bengal Health Department.

Notice to three doctors

The notice was addressed to SSKM Hospital Director Dr Manimoy Bandyopadhyay, Bangur Institute of Neurosciences Medical Superintendent and Vice-Principal Dr Pijush Kumar Roy and the institute’s Head of Neurology Dr Atanu Biswas.

Banerjee has sought details of the circumstances in which her medical records were accessed and allegedly shared. The notice asks whether her consent was obtained before the records were disclosed and whether any court order authorised their release.

It has also sought clarification on whether the documents made public were her original medical records and how they came into Adhikari’s possession.

Questions over disclosure

Banerjee’s notice argues that even if her medical records had been obtained by the state government or an investigating agency through a lawful process, that would not automatically authorise their disclosure to the public.

It has sought to know whether any judicial order permitted the documents to be released and, in the absence of such authorisation, what action had been taken against those responsible for providing them.

The legal notice has shifted the focus of the renewed controversy from the nature of Banerjee’s 2021 injury to the handling of confidential medical information and the circumstances in which the documents cited by Adhikari entered the public domain.

Suvendu revives 2021 row

The action follows remarks by Adhikari on October 3 in which he revived the controversy surrounding Banerjee’s injury during the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election campaign.

At a press conference, Adhikari displayed a document that he said was a March 11, 2021, radiodiagnosis report from the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences. He claimed the report stated that there was “no evidence of fracture or dislocation” and used it to question Banerjee’s account of her injury during the campaign.

Adhikari alleged that Banerjee had made false claims about the extent of her injury and said his government would conduct a fresh inquiry into what he described as “false propaganda”. His allegations remain contested, and the medical document he displayed does not by itself establish the broader circumstances in which Banerjee sustained her injuries.

What happened in Nandigram

The controversy dates back to March 2021, when Banerjee, then West Bengal chief minister and the Trinamool Congress candidate from Nandigram, was injured while campaigning near Birulia Bazar.

Banerjee subsequently conducted part of her election campaign in a wheelchair, and the circumstances and extent of her injuries became a major political issue during the fiercely contested Assembly election.

Adhikari, who had left the Trinamool Congress for the BJP months before the election, defeated Banerjee in Nandigram. The Trinamool Congress, however, returned to power in West Bengal with a substantial majority.

The issue has resurfaced more than five years later after Adhikari publicly cited the purported medical documents and announced a fresh investigation. Banerjee’s legal notice does not merely contest the political allegations but seeks an account of how confidential patient records were accessed and disclosed.

Privacy row takes centre stage

The latest development has opened a separate question over medical confidentiality. Banerjee’s counsel has maintained that lawful possession of a medical document by an official authority, if that was how the records were obtained, would not necessarily provide authority for its public disclosure.

The hospitals and doctors named in the notice have been asked to explain the chain through which the documents were allegedly accessed and shared. Their responses could determine Banerjee’s subsequent legal course as the political dispute over the 2021 Nandigram episode continues.