Doctors to be held liable for delay in medical reports in criminal cases

Written by Sanchari Chattopadhyay Published On 2021-02-01T14:43:03+05:30 | Updated On 1 Feb 2021 2:43 PM IST

Doctors to be held liable for delay in medical reports in criminal cases

Punjab: Taking cognizance of the several cases where the judicial process is being affected due to the unexplained delay of medical reports, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has recently directed the concerned authorities of Punjab, Haryana, and UT Chandigarh's Health Department to ensure that medical opinion in criminal cases is given promptly and without any delay.

The court has exercised its inherent power and emphasized that the doctors responsible for giving a medical opinion in criminal cases should not delay in giving their report to the police. The HC bench further added that if any doctor or investigating officer is found to have caused an unreasonable delay in providing the medical records, the concerned authorities may take serious action against them.

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The court has also directed the concerned authorities of the two states and the UT to issue instructions stating that the medical reports should be made a part of the police investigation report as soon as it arrives. All the judges of different courts were also asked to refer to medical reports, if available, before granting bail to the accused.

As per a recent media report by the Times of India, this came in connection with a case where a resident of Haryana and another petitioner approached the High court for bail. The petitioners were booked on April 17, 2020, for the offences under Sections 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 324 (causing hurt with a deadly weapon) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC at Kanina police station of Mahendergarh district. The petitioners were granted bail only one after their arrest by the local High court as it found the charges to be mild.

However, after 5 months of the incident, the medical report appeared to point out serious injury on the part of the victim. After that, the police brought serious charges against the accused under section 326 (voluntarily causing grievous hurt).

The accused approached the High court to get bail. The counsel for the petitioners submitted that they have already been granted bail and no way have they abused the liberty of the bail, hence they are entitled to get the bail.

After considering the submission, a single bench headed by justice Arun Kumar Tyagi ordered the DGP of both the states and UT Chandigarh to direct the concerned authorities to instruct the investigating officers that they should obtain copies of medical reports as soon as they can and they must immediately ensure that the reports are part of their investigation reports as well, reports TOI.

The Court warned, "Needless to say such instructions should also have the provision that in case of any undue, unreasonable and unexplained delay on the part of the concerned doctor or investigating officer appropriate departmental action shall be taken against them by the competent authorities."

All sessions judges/additional sessions judges/ chief judicial magistrates/additional chief judicial magistrates/judicial magistrates first class in both the states and Chandigarh were also directed to seek the medical reports before granting bail to the accused if such reports are available by the time of the judgment and before the commencement of trial.

The court has passed the orders exercising inherent powers and has also asked both the states of Punjab and Haryana and the Chandigarh administration to file their response on the issue by February 2.

Punjab Haryana High Courtmedical opiniondoctorscriminal cases

Source : with inputs

Sanchari Chattopadhyay

Sanchari Chattopadhyay has pursued her M.A in English and Culture Studies from the University of Burdwan, West Bengal. She likes observing cultural specificities and exploring new places.