RG Kar case: SC transfers suo moto case to Calcutta High Court

The Supreme Court on Wednesday transferred to the Calcutta High Court the suo motu proceedings it had initiated in the aftermath of the ghastly rape and murder of a junior woman doctor at the state-run R G Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.  

A Bench of Justices M M Sundresh and Satish Chandra Sharma directed that the matter be placed before a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court to oversee compliance with the directions earlier issued by the apex court.

“We deem it appropriate to refer the matter to a Division Bench of the Calcutta High Court with a request to the Chief Justice to place the matter before an appropriate Bench. Registry to transmit all the matters to the Calcutta High Court,” the Justice Sundresh-led Bench ordered.

The top court also directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to furnish its latest status reports, earlier submitted before the Supreme Court, to the parents of the victim.

Senior advocate Karuna Nundy, appearing on behalf of doctors’ associations from West Bengal, submitted that the Supreme Court had constituted a National Task Force (NTF) on hospital safety and related concerns.

She urged the Justice Sundesh-led Bench to continue hearing the matter until the NTF finished its work, adding that the CBI’s status reports raised serious questions about the involvement of others. At this, the apex court observed that the Calcutta High Court was the proper forum to continue supervising the investigation and trial, particularly since a petition filed by the victim’s parents is already pending there.

It added that continuing parallel proceedings would serve no purpose. The Supreme Court initiated the suo motu matter titled “In Re: Alleged rape and murder incident of a trainee doctor in R G Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, and related issues” in August 2024, a few days after the brutal crime occurred within the hospital premises.

The incident had triggered nationwide outrage and widespread protests by doctors and medical associations over the lack of safety and basic facilities in public hospitals.

The then Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud-led Bench had termed the incident ‘horrific’ and one that “shocked the conscience of the nation”, observing that it raised systemic issues concerning the safety of doctors across the country, particularly in public hospitals.

It had recorded serious deficiencies in public hospitals, including the lack of resting rooms for doctors on night duty, the absence of separate duty rooms for men and women, prolonged working hours without basic hygiene facilities, a shortage of security personnel, inadequate CCTV coverage, unrestricted access to hospital premises, and poorly lit areas. To address these concerns, the Supreme Court constituted a 10-member NTF to make recommendations on the safety, working conditions and well-being of medical professionals.

Earlier, the Calcutta High Court had transferred the investigation in the rape case to the CBI.

In January 2025, a sessions court in Kolkata’s Sealdah sentenced prime accused Sanjay Roy, a former civic volunteer with the Kolkata Police, to life imprisonment after convicting him under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) provisions relating to rape and murder.