Emedinews:Insights on Medicolegal Issues:What is the August 5, 2005 Supreme Court judgment on medical negligence?

Recently, cases of doctors being subjected to criminal prosecution are on an increase. Sometimes such prosecutions are filed by private complainants and sometimes by police on an FIR being lodged and cognizance taken.

·         The investigating officer and the private complainant cannot always be supposed to have knowledge of medical science so as to determine whether the act of the accused medical professional amounts to rash or negligent act within the domain of criminal law under Section 304–A of IPC.

·         The criminal process once initiated subjects the medical professional to serious embarrassment and sometimes harassment.

·         He has to seek bail to escape arrest, which may or may not be granted to him.

·         At the end he may be exonerated by acquittal or discharge but the loss which he has suffered in his reputation cannot be compensated by any standards.

·         We may not be understood as holding that doctors can never be prosecuted for an offence of which rashness or negligence is an essential ingredient.

·         All that we are doing is emphasizing the need for care and caution in the interest of society; for, the service which the medical profession renders to human beings is probably the noblest of all, and hence there is a need for protecting doctors from frivolous or unjust prosecutions.

·         Many a complainant prefer recourse to criminal process as a tool for pressurizing the medical professional for extracting uncalled for or unjust compensation. Such malicious proceedings have to be guarded against.