IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT CALCUTTA CONSTITUTIONAL WRIT JURISDICTION APPELLATE SIDE RESERVED ON: 19.03.2026 DELIVERED ON: 17.04.2026 PRESENT:

THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE REETOBROTO KUMAR MITRA WPA NO. 12309 OF 2025 DR. DEBASHIS HALDER - VERSUS –

THE STATE OF WEST BENGAL AND ORS.

Appearance:

Mr. Samim Ahammed, Adv.

Mr. Arka Maiti, Adv.

Ms. Gulsanwara Pervin, Adv. Ms. Saloni Bhattacharya, Adv.

Ms. Reshma Khatun, Adv.

….. for the Applicant/Petitioner Mr. Kalyan Bandopadhyay, Sr. Adv.

Ms. Pramiti Banerjee, Adv.

Mr. Arka Nag, Adv.

Mr. Debayan Sen, Adv.

Mr. Niket Ojha, Adv. ….. for the State Mr. D. N. Maiti, Adv.

Mr. A. Santra, Adv. …… for the respondent no. 5 Reetobroto Kumar Mitra, J.:

1. The petitioner is aggrieved that he has been transferred from the medical college of his choice in Howrah, while serving as a senior resident to Gazole, Malda.

2. The petitioner is a qualified medical practitioner, having successfully completed his post-graduate degree in Anesthesiology from the Medical College, Kolkata, which is affiliated to the West Bengal University of Health Sciences (for short, “WBUHS”). The petitioner is duly registered with the Medical Council in the batch of 2020-2023. The petitioner participated in the counselling process and had also executed a bond, required of persons willing to serve as senior resident based on their final MD examination marks, in terms of the notification dated February 20, 2025, which invited eligible candidates to participate in the centralized counselling process for selection and posting of incumbents to various government hospitals in West Bengal.

3. Upon participation, the petitioner had secured Rank 24 in the merit list in Anesthesiology and was allotted the post of senior resident at the Department of Anesthesiology, Howrah District Hospital. This was in terms with the self-declaration given by the petitioner that he was willing to be engaged in the Howrah District Hospital under the indemnity bond.

The self-declaration was given on February 27, 2025.

4. The petitioner had served the first year in the Howrah District Hospital, being the hospital of his choice, and thereafter was asked to join Gazole State General Hospital, Malda. It is this posting from Howrah to Malda which has been assailed in this writ petition.

5. Mr. Samim Ahammed, appearing for the petitioner, has raised the following issues:

a. The transfer of the petitioner is contrary to the self-declaration that he would not seek any change from the place of engagement opted by him, which was finalised.

b. The Standard Operating Procedure (hereinafter “SOP”)

envisaged in the Memo No. HF/O/HS(MA)/222/HFW- 43011(11)/152/2022-ADMIN dated February 16, 2023 (page

82 of the writ petition) has been grossly violated.

c. The SOP contemplates engagement of candidates after completion of their post-graduate degree at different medical colleges and hospitals as senior resident for one year through counselling. Thus, upon counselling, the Howrah District Hospital was allotted to the petitioner.

d. Therefore, his appointment to the Howrah District Hospital could not have been changed and he could not have been asked to join in Malda. Thus, there has been a gross deviation from the SOP.

e. Of the entire list of 871 candidates, there has been a selective procedure adopted for only two persons, including the petitioner, which is in violation of the SOP.

f. The SOP has been followed for all the other 869 candidates but not for the petitioner and another.

g. In the list of vacancies from which interested persons had to opt/choose their medical college/hospital, Gazole in Malda was not even there with a vacancy. Thus, the vacancy in Gazole was created only out of bias against the petitioner and put him in difficulty.

h. The petitioner had written to the concerned authority on May

27, 2025, and finally on May 29, 2025, challenging the unilateral posting of the petitioner from the medical college of his choice to a far-flung place in Malda.

i. This posting was not just unilatera