Kolkata, Aug 13 (IANS): Soon after the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday ordered Sandip Ghosh, the former head of Kolkata's R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital where a female doctor was raped and murdered last week, to go on a long leave, the controversial doctor submitted an application to the state Health Department seeking 15-day leave.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice T.S Sivagnanam and Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharya said, "The principal is the guardian of all doctors working there... if he doesn't show any empathy, who will? He should be at home, and not working anywhere..."

"If the principal stepped down citing 'moral responsibility', it is a rather serious matter that he is rewarded within 12 hours with another appointment. Let him go on long leave, otherwise we will pass an order," the court added.

Notably, hours after resigning as the principal of the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital citing “moral responsibility” on Monday, Ghosh was appointed as the principal of the Calcutta National Medical College & Hospital (CNMCH), triggering protests by the students and junior doctors of CNMCH.

For the time being, Ajay Ray, who was replaced by Ghosh as the CNMCH principal by the Health Department, will continue in the post till further orders.

On Monday, Ghosh announced his resignation both as the principal of R.G Kar Medical College and from the state medical services. However, sources in the Health Department said that although his resignation as R.G. Kar principal was accepted, his decision to step down from the state medical services was not. As a result, he was appointed as the principal of CNMCH with immediate effect.

Since Monday night, medical students and junior doctors at CNMCH have been protesting against the appointment of Ghosh as the principal. The protesters are demanding that Ghosh should not be given any administrative assignment related to the Health Department.

On Tuesday morning, BJP’s IT cell chief and the party’s central observer for West Bengal, Amit Malviya, also questioned the Health Department for not putting Ghosh on 'compulsory waiting' for the sake of a fair probe into the alleged rape and murder of the junior doctor, who was a second-year post-graduate student at the R.G. Kar MCH.