Loath to take action against a post-graduate trainee doctor who slaps a patient to induce labour? Just pass the buck to Calcutta University.

The pretext: medical interns could not be disciplined in the past on grounds that they were students of the university.

But medical teachers and a section of health department officials said on Wednesday the government could have well punished Supratik Basu for slapping a pregnant Sandhya Mondal in the labour room of Nil Ratan Sircar (NRS) Medical College and Hospital, by barring him from the wards. At least till the university gave its verdict.

Instead, Basu is now back on duty in the NRS gynaecology department.

What health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra referred to on Wednesday — to justify the return of Basu — was an incident that occurred on the night of November 1 last year at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, where a batch of junior doctors clashed with patients’ kin and the media.

“We tried to discipline some of them and suspend them indefinitely. But the punishment had to be revoked after the junior doctors moved the high court,” pointed out Mishra.

Three anti-SFI internees —Shubhojeet Roy, Shubhankar Chatterjee and Biplab Chandra — had moved court against their punishment and earned a favourable verdict.

But their case was different. “It is very strange that the government is now linking the RG Kar case with the one at NRS,” said teachers and health department officials.

The government has every right to suspend post-graduate trainees on disciplinary grounds, they asserted. “In the case of the three RG Kar interns, the government did not showcause them or even file charges, which is mandatory,” said Angshuman Mitra, Calcutta district committee secretary of the medical service centre, a healthcare body.

The three interns had pointed out that they had not been informed of the charges for suspension. “The case boomeranged on the government for the wrong reasons,” Mitra added.

Director of medical education Chittaranjan Maiti said on Wednesday the government was looking into the possibility of barring Basu from his post-graduation at NRS. “I will hear out Sandhya Mondal’s family before taking a decision. After all, it is the question of a trainee doctor’s career,” he added.