Saturday 17 December 2011

Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal issues: Fracture of bone–Grievous injury

The certification of grievous injury on the basis of fracture of bone is done by doctors in accordance with Section 320 IPC, which lists the injuries that are called grievous injury.
• The medical dictionary meaning of the word ‘fracture’ is breaking of a part, especially the bone or break or rupture in the bone or in continuity of a bone This definition is appropriate for the radiologist or orthopedician, but not for the purpose of certifying an injury as grievous since in many cases in legal scrutiny it has been found that the fracture reported by radiologists were tentative, superficial, fabricated or self-inflicted, hardly 1 mm deep cut in the bone or mere a ponding effect on bone with no medical or surgical complication.
• It is important for the doctor to understand that a tentative fracture medically/clinically non-significant/uncomplicated/invented by modern scan methods cannot be certified as grievous injury.
• A mere superficial cut and scratch on bone may not be grievous because the meaning of grievous is.. threatening great harm; "a dangerous operation"; "a grave situation"; "a grave illness"; "grievous bodily harm"; "a serious wound"; "a serious turn of events"; "a severe case of wound or a life–threatening disease
• It must be remembered that the cutting of a bone does not necessarily involve a fracture of that bone. In a criminal revision at the Patna High Court, in which one individual received an incised wound, 3" × 3 ¼" × 1", on the lower part of the left leg cutting the bone underneath, it was held that where the evidence was merely that the bone had been cut and there was nothing whatever to indicate the extent of the cut, whether deep or a mere scratch upon the surface, it was impossible to infer from that evidence alone that grievous hurt had been caused within the meaning of the definition of section 320, IPC.
• The supreme court in its judgment, in one case, had clarified that until and unless such a cut on bone does not extend deep up to the medullary cavity it will not constitute a grievous hurt within the definition of fracture under section 320(7) of Indian Penal Code.
• In case of hurt it is the Court that judges finally whether the injury is simple or grievous. The duty of the medical witness is only to describe the facts and not classify a hurt. The entry made in the wound certificate as simple or grievous is only meant to guide the investigating officer

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