Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 11, 2007
Dr. Kunal Saha, M.D., Ph.D.
A historic special leave petition (SLP) will be argued before
the Supreme Court of India (SC) challenging the denial of rights
to information under the Rights to Information (RTI) Act to non-resident
Indians (NRIs) and overseas citizens of India (OCIs). The RTI
Act was enacted into law in 2005 to bring transparency and to
prevent corruption in government and public services in India.
However, the Calcutta High Court has recently ruled that NRIs
including the dual citizens (OCIs) and the millions of Indians
who have adopted citizenship of other countries for various reasons,
may not obtain information under the RTI Act. The case (SLP SC
Civil No. 22999/2007; Dr. Kunal Saha vs. Dr. Ashok Chowdhury,
president of West Bengal Medical Council; WBMC) has been listed
for hearing on Thursday (December 13) before Justices Mr. S.B.
Sinha and Mr. H.S. Bedi (Court No. 6, Item No. 19).
This SLP stems from the wrongful death of my wife and a child
psychologist, Anuradha Saha, who died at an age of only 36 from
gross medical negligence by several senior Calcutta doctors during
a social visit to India in 1998. Separate criminal and compensation
(for over Rs. 100 crores) cases against these doctors are presently
pending in the SC for final verdict. These cases have already
generated a great deal of public interests and also ignited public
awareness about medical negligence in India. The WBMC has already
exonerated the accused doctors through a sham investigation and
in an attempt to shield these doctors, they have refused to provide
me any information (under RTI Act) about their alleged investigation
on the sole ground of my dual citizenship status. NRIs and dual
citizens of India are patriotic for their motherland and have
been playing a pivotal role for the progress of modern India.
Denial of the RTI Act is clearly discriminatory against all NRIs
and OCIs. I urge you to cover this historic hearing in the SC
on Thursday and bring it to your readers/viewers to enlighten
people about this travesty. You can contact my lawyers in Delhi;
Mr. Venkataraman (Tel: 9910090030) or senior advocate Mr. Krishnamani
(Tel: 011-2923-0482) for more information in this matter. You
can also directly contact me in USA at the numbers below. Thank
you.
