Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday allowed Dr EA Ruwise, accused of abetting the suicide of his girlfriend Dr Shahana, to rejoin his post-graduate studies.

A single-judge bench consisting of Justice Ziyad Rahman AA permitted Ruwise to continue his studies, noting the “irreversible damage” caused by preventing him from attending classes.

“The damages, if any caused, if the petitioner is prevented from attending the classes would be irreversible once it is found that the proceedings initiated against the petitioner, were not legally sustainable,” observed the court. The punishment imposed against Ruwise will be implemented in case the same will be upheld by the court in future, the bench added. The matter has been posted for May 21.

Ruwais was charged with the offences under Section 306 IPC ('Abetment of Suicide') and Section 4 of the Dowry Prohibition Act ('Penalty for demanding dowry'). When the incident came to light, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) suspended Ruwais' medical license.

Ruwais is currently released on bail. He approached the High Court with a writ petition to revoke his suspension order and seek permission to continue his post-graduate studies -MS Orthopaedics.

A single-judge bench of Justice Mohammed Nias CP had earlier allowed the petitioner to continue his postgraduate studies which was then set aside by a division bench of Chief Justice AJ Desai and Justice VG Arun. The division bench had directed the disciplinary proceedings against Dr Ruwais to be completed within one week and reports be placed before the single judge and also directed the college authorities to place an additional counter affidavit before the single judge pursuant to the completion of the disciplinary proceedings.

Justice Ziyad Rahman AA accordingly directed the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to reinstate the petitioner and clarified that such reinstatement would be subject to the condition that in case the punishment of the court is upheld, such reinstatement shall not be treated as valid attendance for any practical purposes.

Dr Shahana, who was a postgraduate surgery student at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, died by suicide, allegedly due to Ruwise backing out of marriage since the dowry demands were not met. It is alleged that Ruwise's family had demanded 150 sovereigns of gold, 15 acres of land and a BMW car from Shahana's family, which the latter could not meet.
(With LiveLaw inputs)