‘Heavy roster’: Yet another Calcutta high court bench releases RG Kar case; third bench to recuse itself from hearing

KOLKATA: A Calcutta High Court division bench on Tuesday released multiple cases related to the RG Kar rape and murder, citing "heavy roster". During the hearing, the bench remarked that there would be a judicial commission formed by the state and it would need a detailed hearing then.

"Given the heavy roster of this court, we are inclined to release these matters from this bench," said the division bench of Justice Rajasekhar Mantha and Justice Rai Chattopadhyay. With the bench releasing the matters, it will be placed before Chief Justice Sujoy Paul for reassignment. This is the third bench to have released the matters after being assigned by the CJ.


Before this, two other benches released the matter. First, a single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh had released the matter from his list. Aggrieved by the way the investigation was conducted, the parents of the RG Kar PGT doctor, who was raped and murdered in 2024, had moved Justice Ghosh's bench, who on Aug 28, 2025, recused from hearing the case, stating that the other two petitions, challenging convict Sanjay Roy's punishment were pending before the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak.

Next, the division bench of Justice Debangsu Basak and Justice Md Shabbar Rashidi released the case on March 11, 2026. The bench stated that one of the litigants had written to the CJ, seeking expeditious hearing. "Since, we are no longer the regular appeal court hearing criminal appeals and considering the number of matters pending in our regular determination, we are not in a position to accord the requisite priority to the hearing of these matters, as desired by one of the litigants. The matters were adjourned at least once on the ground of the Senior Advocate of such litigant," the bench had observed while releasing the case.

Clubbed together, the RG Kar matter includes the victim's parents' case, seeking further probe after being unsatisfied with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe, the sole arrested accused Sanjay Roy's plea against his conviction, and the CBI, seeking enhancement of Roy's punishment from life sentence to death.

The CBI on Tuesday filed a report in a sealed cover, which was inspected in the court by RG Kar victim's parents' counsel senior advocate Jayanta Narayan Chatterjee.



A 31-year-old junior doctor was raped and murdered in the state-run hospital RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on Aug 9, 2024. The Sealdah court in Jan 2025 convicted Sanjay Roy for the rape and murder of the victim, and he was sentenced to life imprisonment. His conviction was based on a CBI probe, which was handed over to them by the Calcutta HC from Kolkata Police.