Karnataka HC quashes forgery case against oncologist, pulls up Manipal Hospital

Bengaluru: Granting relief to a Bengaluru-based oncologist, the Karnataka High Court recently quashed criminal proceedings initiated against him by a hospital over allegedly forging a signature on an experience certificate.

While allowing the doctor's plea challenging the decision of a magistrate court summoning him on charges related to forgery and the use of forged documents under the Indian Penal Code, the HC bench comprising Justice M Nagaprasanna pulled up Manipal Hospital for pursuing criminal action against the petitioner-doctor.

"Your hospital should have been magnanimous and ignored the document; he (petitioner) has served you for 20 years," the bench orally remarked.

"Allow doctors to treat patients, do not drag him into your (inter-hospital) disputes. In private disputes, don’t make doctors scapegoats," it further noted.

The dispute arose after the petitioner-doctor resigned from Manipal Hospital, where he had worked for nearly two decades, to join Aster DM Healthcare.

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As per the latest media report by Law Trend, the hospital claimed to have received an email from verification Services between November 8 and November 21, 2022, seeking verification of an experience certificate allegedly issued to the petitioner-doctor. It was claimed by the hospital that it had never issued such a certificate. Therefore, the hospital alleged that the signature on the document had been forged. On the basis of these allegations, the hospital filed a private complaint before a magistrate.

After investigating the matter, the police submitted a B report with a conclusion that no offence was made out. However, challenging the report, Manipal Hospital filed a protest petition. Following this, the Magistrate's court took cognizance of the complaint, rejected the conclusion by police and issued a summons to the doctor for alleged offences of forgery and use of forged documents under the Indian Penal Code.

Challenging the Magistrate's summons, the oncologist approached the Karnataka High Court. Indian Express has reported that the High Court bench observed, "There can be nothing more appalling than the said fact that the hospital to which the petitioner had served for more than 20 years is now alleging he has forged a signature on an experience certificate, which he did not even want."

Noting that the police report ought to have been accepted and the case should have been closed, the High Court bench quashed the criminal proceedings and remarked, "Such cases should not be even permitted to be tried; the concerned court has erred in taking cognizance of the offence against a doctor and issuing summons without even looking at the documents which were produced at the time when the B report was filed. Therefore, the further proceedings, if permitted to continue, would on the face of it be an abuse of process of law and result in miscarriage of justice."

However, the HC bench did not permit the doctor to "initiate malicious prosecution against the complainant in the peculiar facts of the case."

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