In a sharp legal and political counteroffensive, Trinamool Congress supremo and former West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has served a formal legal notice to the management and senior medical authorities of Kolkata’s state-run SSKM Hospital, also known as the Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research. The legal notice challenges the alleged unauthorized disclosure and circulation of her confidential health records dating back to her high-profile injury sustained during the fiercely contested 2021 West Bengal Assembly election campaign in Nandigram. Issued through her legal counsel, the notice asserts that releasing private patient records into the public domain without the express consent of the individual represents an egregious violation of medical ethics, statutory confidentiality standards, and the fundamental right to privacy guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution of India.
The immediate trigger for the legal intervention was a press conference convened at the state secretariat by senior political rival Suvendu Adhikari, who publicly brandished copies of what he asserted was an authentic radiology and imaging report from the Bangur Institute of Neurosciences dated March 11, 2021. Citing those clinical documents, Adhikari alleged that Banerjee had exaggerated or fabricated the severity of her physical trauma during the campaign, asserting that the imaging records showed no conclusive evidence of any bone fracture or structural dislocation in her leg. Adhikari further announced that the state administration would initiate an inquiry into the matter, accusing her of staging the episode to gain electoral sympathy when she subsequently campaigned across the state in a wheelchair.
Banerjee’s legal notice directly confronts the handling of those confidential files, emphasizing that medical institutions and treating physicians bear an absolute fiduciary duty to protect patient health records from public disclosure. The communication poses searching queries to the SSKM hospital administration and affiliated institutions, demanding an explanation as to whether the papers displayed before the media were authentic hospital documents and, if so, through what administrative or legal pathway they escaped hospital archives. The notice argues that even in scenarios where investigative agencies or government departments lawfully requisition medical charts during inquiries, those records cannot be leaked or handed over to unauthorized third parties without a specific judicial directive.
The legal document explicitly warns that if the hospital administration or treating doctors failed to adhere to due process, resulting in the unauthorized leak of private health data, strict departmental and criminal proceedings should be instituted against the delinquent officials involved. Banerjee's counsel highlighted that clinical confidentiality is governed not only by civil rights statutes but also by the mandatory professional code of conduct laid down by medical regulatory bodies, which strictly prohibits healthcare professionals from disclosing a patient's diagnosis, imaging, or treatment history without permission. The notice also demands disclosure of any internal inquiries conducted to trace how institutional records were accessed and shared.
The dispute revives a volatile controversy originating on March 10, 2021, when Banerjee suffered an injury to her lower left limb near Birulia Bazar in Nandigram while greeting crowds from an open vehicle. At the time, she was rushed by road to Kolkata and admitted to SSKM Hospital, where a dedicated multi-disciplinary medical board evaluated her condition and placed her leg in a plaster cast for severe bone and soft-tissue trauma. Her subsequent statewide campaign from a wheelchair became one of the defining visual symbols of the 2021 assembly contest, which concluded with the Trinamool Congress securing an absolute majority of over 210 seats, while the Bharatiya Janata Party emerged as the principal opposition.
Following the issuance of the notice, political reactions were swift across Bengal’s political landscape. Trinamool Congress leaders, including Kunal Ghosh, vigorously defended Banerjee and denounced the disclosure as an unprincipled breach of medical privacy, noting that no healthcare establishment has the right to expose a patient’s case history for partisan score-settling. Adhikari, however, maintained a defiant posture during follow-up interactions with reporters, asserting that the documents did not originate from the hospital's day-to-day records and warning that further disclosures, including X-ray plates and MRI scans, would follow if further investigations were pursued.
By turning the controversy into a constitutional grievance centered on patient confidentiality and institutional culpability, Banerjee has shifted the debate from campaign rhetoric to legal responsibility. The case places a sharp spotlight on the custody chain of medical records within public healthcare facilities, raising critical governance questions about how premier state hospitals manage, archive, and protect sensitive citizen information from unauthorized external access. As hospital authorities evaluate the legal notice, the unfolding dispute threatens to draw treating doctors, hospital administrators, and political adversaries into an extended courtroom showdown over medical ethics, data protection, and constitutional rights.