The
investigating police officer and the private complainant cannot always be
supposed to have knowledge of medical science so as to determine whether the
act of the alleged medical professional/doctor or hospital amounts to rash or
negligent act within the domain of criminal law under Section 304–A of IPC said
the Supreme Court of India. The Supreme Court states,
- “… As we
have noticed hereinabove, that the cases of doctors being subjected to
criminal prosecution are on an increase. Sometimes such prosecutions are
filed by private complainants and sometimes by the police based on an FIR
being lodged and cognizance taken.
- 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 to emphasize 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
complaint prefers 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.”
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