Ratan Kumar (Legal Practice) 01 January 2013

Doctors immunity

Sir,

How far doctors are immuned from their criminal liability. Can somebody cite SC case rulings.

Thanks and Regards.

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3 Replies

Chetan Joshi (Advisory/Advocacy) 01 January 2013

As far as Doctors act with diligence and the matter is not proved as gross negligence.....

Martin F. D'Souza vs Mohd. Ishfaq...

You can search for "medical negligence" for more citations.

Regards

Chetan(dot)7679(at)gmail(dot)com

Guest (Guest) 01 January 2013

There are umpteen SC judgments on this but none is a readily applicable Bible. A lot depends on what emerges from the examination-in-chief and cross examination. The stage of arguments where the rulings can be cited, comes after the evidence stage.

Ashish Davessar

Advocate
Supreme Court of India
Punjab and Haryana High Court, Chandigarh
District Courts, Amritsar & Chandigarh

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Dr V. Nageswara Rao (Advocate) 02 January 2013

1. Your query relates to criminal liability only.

2. Courts in India have been rather reluctant to foist criminal liability on a doctor under S. 304A of IPC for causing death by rash and neglignet act.

3. The Courts require proof of "gross" negligence and not mere negligence, as under Law of Torts, for holding a doctor criminally liable under S. 304A. Hence, mere error of judgment is not sufficient.

4. Courts in UK have held doctors criminally liable for gross negligence before and after the passing of Criminal Justice Act, 2003.