Justice Karnan says no to medical test

Shubhadeep Choudhury

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Tribune News Service

Kolkata, May 4

A team from Calcutta Pavlov Hospital, a government-run hospital for mental health in the city, failed to clinically examine Justice CS Karnan after the Calcutta High Court judge refused to undergo any such test.

“Can you carry out a psychiatric examination of me without approval of my guardians,” Justice Karnan asked Dr Ganesh Prasad, psychiatrist and superintendent of the hospital who was heading the medical team.

Justice Karnan said while his wife, a professor, was in Chennai, his two sons, both engineers, were elsewhere.

Dr Prasad had to concede that without the consent of the family members, a person was not supposed to be subjected to psychiatric evaluation. Besides Dr Prasad, the medical team comprised two more psychiatrists and a psychologist. The Supreme Court had recently ordered the examination of the state of Justice Karnan’s mental health by a medical board set up by a government hospital in Kolkata.

The medical team was escorted by heavy police force led by DCPs C Sudhakar and K Sabari Rajkumar.

The medical team is supposed to submit their report to the Supreme Court on May 8. Dr Prasad refused to answer when asked about their next course of action.

Sudhakar, responding to questions about complying with the SC order, said the police were asked to “assist” the medical team. Justice Karnan also gave the health professionals a letter explaining his defiant stance. In the letter, addressed to the head of the medical team, Justice Karnan said the seven SC judges who initiated the contempt proceedings against him and later passed the order for his psychiatric evaluation must resign.