The investigating police officer and
the private/patient complainant cannot always be supposed to have knowledge of
medical science so as to determine whether the act of the alleged medical
professional/doctor/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 SC says:
- 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 police 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 complainant 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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