A high court division bench headed by Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Tuesday expressed “hope” that a lower court would start the trial process in connection with the alleged financial irregularities at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital by early March.

Former RG Kar principal Sandip Ghosh and four others are accused in the case.

Justice Bagchi said: “The high court is not willing to interfere in the process of trial in the case... But we hope the accused will get an opportunity to express their grievances before the trial court judge by February 24.”

The judge said this after hearing allegations from the counsel appearing for Ghosh and the others that their clients were yet to receive some of the documents relating to the charges against them.

“The investigating agency has not yet handed over some of the documents,” said Sabyasachi Bannerjee, the lawyer for Suman Hazra, an accused.

At this, the division bench said Ghosh and the others should get a chance to express their grievance. “Your clients would get the opportunity from the trial court (Alipore court) to express their views on the documents by February 24,” Justice Bagchi said.

The CBI lawyer, Rajdeep Majumdar, said it was not wise to hand over all the documents to the accused. “Since the investigation is still on, it is not possible for my client to hand over some of the documents.”

Justice Bagchi then said the accused would get a chance to seek an order from the trial court ordering the CBI to show them all the documents.

The bench said it hoped the process of trial would start by early March but did not issue any order in this regard.

The hearing of the case related to the alleged financial irregularities by Ghosh and four others is in progress at the Special CBI Court in Alipore. The CBI had submitted its chargesheet on November 28, 2024. In early January, Ghosh made a plea before Calcutta High Court seeking an order quashing the charges brought against him.

As the matter came up for hearing before the single bench of Justice Tirthankar Ghosh, the judge directed that the process of charge framing be started within a week.

Following the development in the high court, the Alipore court hurriedly issued an order for framing charges, allegedly bypassing the discharge applications.

The accused then moved Justice Ghosh’s court again for modifications to his earlier order. The judge refused.

The accused then moved an appeal before the division bench headed by Justice Bagchi.