The high court on Wednesday refused to order an interim stay on a state medical council ruling cancelling cardiologist Subhabrata Dutta’s registration.

Once robbed of the registration, a doctor loses his right to treat patients. The council’s ruling was issued on February 25 following a petition by Debaprasad Bhattacharya, a cardiac patient.

Bhattacharya, a city resident, had complained to the council that Dutta had performed angioplasty or balloon surgery on a wrong artery. The patient had to later go to a Chennai hospital to get an angioplasty done on the blocked artery.

Saibalendu Bhowmik, who represented Bhattacharya, told the court that an angiogram conducted by Dutta on September 23, 2005, revealed that the Left Circumflex Artery (commonly called left artery) of his client had 70 per cent blockage. The Posterior Descending Artery, or right artery, had 30 per cent blockage.

“On December 26, the patient was admitted to BM Birla Heart Research Institute for an angioplasty on the left artery. But before the procedure, the doctor had reportedly performed another angiogram which revealed that the left artery had 23 per cent blockage and the right, 77 per cent. Dutta then performed angioplasty on the right artery without consulting the patient’s relatives,” Bhowmik said.

The patient was released on December 29 but he kept suffering from chest pain. He then went to a Chennai hospital, where “doctors said the report of the first angiogram was correct,” said Bhowmik. A second angioplasty was performed to fix the blocked vessel.

Dutta’s lawyer Abhrojit Mitra argued. “The order was not in accordance with law.... A relative of the patient was consulted over the phone before the doctor did angioplasty on the right artery,” said Mitra.

The judge turned down the plea and listed the matter for hearing on April 8.