The Calcutta High Court has overturned an official decision blocking a life-saving organ donation for a patient suffering from terminal kidney disease, ordering the state authorization board to review the case anew within one week. Justice Krishna Rao quashed the May 15 verification report and the authorization committee’s decision to reject a family friend’s offer to donate a kidney on the grounds that she was not a close relative.
Rejection Based on Non-Relative Status
The legal challenge arose after doctors at the Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences diagnosed a man with end-stage renal disease and certified that a kidney transplant was the definitive medical treatment required to save his life. A female family friend subsequently offered to voluntarily donate one of her kidneys.
The proposal was formally submitted on October 29, 2025. Following an evaluation that included a police inquiry, a state verification committee issued a report on May 15 concluding that there was no special justification for the donation from a non-relative. State counsel Falguni Bandyapadhya stated in court that the committee had declined to recommend the transplant based on these findings. When the donor and her guardian attended a hearing before the Organ Transplantation Authorisation Board on June 9, the recipient’s wife was verbally informed that the application had been denied, though no written reasons were supplied.
Court Mandates Reconsideration of Altruistic Donation
Representing the recipient, advocate Aritra Basu argued that all required documentation and magisterial affidavits had been submitted, and that authorities had no basis to withhold permission without evidence of financial transactions. The defense maintained that the donor’s willingness to assist out of personal affection and humanitarian motives should not be questioned without material proof of illegal dealing.
In the July 30 ruling, Justice Rao highlighted that the verification panel had ignored the donor’s submitted paperwork and relied strictly on her oral statements during questioning. The court affirmed that no commercial transaction was involved and that the donor was acting purely out of compassion to save a person in need. Justice Rao set aside the previous rejections and ordered the Organ Transplantation Authorisation Board to issue a fresh decision within seven days after re-examining the police report together with statements from the donor and her father.
