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.
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