Calcutta High Court (Appellete Side)
Sk. Nadeem Ahmed vs The State Of West Bengal And Others on 19 July, 2022
July 19, 2022
Sl. No.24
Court No.1
SG
WPA (P) 322 of 2021
Sk. Nadeem Ahmed
vs.
The State of West Bengal and others
Mr. Biswaroop Bhattacharya,
Mr. Afsar Ali, Advocates
... for the petitioner
Mr. Anirban Ray, ld. GP
Mr. T. M. Siddiqui,
Mr. Nilotpal Chatterjee, Advocates
... for the State
Mr. Avik Ghatak,
Mr. Fahad Imam, Advocates
... for the Respondent Nos.2 & 4
Mr. Amritam Mandal, Ms. Shipra Naskar, Advocates ... for the respondent Nos.4 & 6 Mr. Md. Zohaib Rauf, Advocate ... for the respondent No.6 In this petition, the allegation is in respect of illegal entries of names in the register of Unani Practitioners maintained by the respondent No.2 the State Council of Unani Medicine.
On 6th December, 2021 this Court had directed the Director of Health Services to enquire into the issue of illegally entering the names of 947 persons in the register of Unani Practitioners and submit a report before this Court.
The report has been submitted today on behalf of the Director of Health Services, Government of West Bengal. Report reveals that Directors of Health Services had examined 5 register books of 2018 and it was found that in the registers there are vacant space in several pages, whiteners were used for changing the entries at several pages and none of these corrections are countersigned, registrations were cancelled without mentioning any valid reason and some of the pages of 2 WPA (P) 322 of 2021 the register were found complete blank but mentioning serial number of registration. The report further reveals that a lot of registration numbers were found to be missing in the list of registration of 2018 in comparing to that of 2011.
On the sample study of 100 cases, Director of Health Services has found following shocking facts:-
"Out of the 100 cases, 15 cases were found with gross anomalies.
Names of registered Unani Practitioners have been changed.
Out of state practitioners have been given/renewed their license.
Same registration number has been issued for two persons etc. Person below 18 years has received registration number.
(G) CONCLUSION All the complainants i.e. Md. Ayoob, Ex-President, Sk.
Nadeem Ahmed, M.A. Parwaiz, Ex-Member of State Council of Unani Medicine have made Mr. Imtiyaz Hussain responsible for all these irregularities. It is felt that such huge number of irregularities covering multiple areas is not possible without the combine efforts of a group of people. Mr. Imtiyaz Hussain may be the mastermind but there are others who had helped him to do the said acts."
The report clearly supports the petitioner's allegation in respect of registration of ineligible persons as Unani Practitioners and it also indicates that some of the officials of 3 WPA (P) 322 of 2021 the Council have committed lapses so far as the registration and maintenance of registers is concerned.
Learned counsel for the State has fairly submitted that the Director of Health Services is ready to examine each of the registration with the respondent Unani Practitioners Council and ascertain if the person concerned is eligible for registration as required by the Act. He has sought leave of this Court to seek the assistance of committee by the Director of Health Services for this purpose.
The Paschim Banga Unani System of Medicine Act, 1979 prescribes for the requisite qualification for entry of a name in the register and Section 28 of the Act provides for cancellation of the entry in the register on certain circumstances, but in this case the very allegation of making the incorrect entries and having the ineligible person registered is as against respondent Nos.2 to 4 i.e. the State Council for Unani Medicine, therefore, at the first instance, we are of the opinion that the eligibility of the registered persons should be examined on case to case basis by the Director of Health Services assisted by his team and thereafter this Court will take a decision for appropriate action in accordance with the provisions of the Act.
Hence, we direct the Director of Health Services to examine the entire record and each of the entry contained in the register of respondent No.2 i.e. the State Council for Unani Medicine and ascertain if the persons registered possess the requisite qualification as prescribed in the Act of 1979 and are eligible for entry of their names in the register. The Director Health Services assisted by his team is permitted to do so in 4 WPA (P) 322 of 2021 phased manner. The report in this regard be submitted by learned counsel for the State on the next date of hearing.
In the sample study of 100 cases, the Director of Health Services has found gross anomalies in respect of 15 cases, the details of which are disclosed in paragraph 5 of the report.
Respondent No.2 is directed to take appropriate action in terms of Section 28 of the Act of 1979 in respect of these 15 cases in accordance with law within a period of 4 weeks from today and submit an action-taken report before this Court on the next date of hearing.
Meanwhile, it will be open to learned counsel for respondents to file exception to the report of the Director of Health Services filed today.
List on 19th September, 2022.
[Prakash Shrivastava, C.J.] [Rajarshi Bharadwaj, J.]