SC issues to Mamata over health advisor's appointment

Taking exception to Calcutta high court's order refusing to give notice to Mamata Banerjee on the appointment of Dr Sukumar Mukherjee as chief health advisor to the state goverment, the Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the West Bengal chief minister.

A bench of justices RM Lodha and AR Dave issued notice to Banerjee seeking her reply on why she should not be made a party in the case challenging the appointment of Mukherjee, against whom the Supreme Court had made adverse remarks earlier.

"It was surely abnormal procedure adopted by the Calcutta high court. She should have been issued a notice and she should be heard before deleting her name from the list of parties," the bench said.

The bench further clarified that it was issuing notice to Banerjee only as to why she should not remain one of the respondents in the case filed in high court.

The bench passed the order on a petition filed by an NRI doctor, Kunal Saha, against the high court's order which had refused to issue notice to Banerjee on his plea challenging the appointment of Mukherjee.

Saha had contended in his petition that Mukherjee's appointment was wrong, as the doctor was severely criticized by the apex court which had said that "he is ignorant".