Rs 1,000 crore defamation suit: Bombay HC allows YouTuber to report on alleged medical negligence, bars 'slaughterhouse' remarks against hospital

Mumbai: While allowing a Mumbai-based YouTuber to continue reporting on underlying medical negligence in a Dongri-based hospital, the Bombay High Court ordered that the YouTuber was not allowed to publish allegations, imputations, or insinuations describing the said hospital as a 'kattalkhana' (slaughterhouse) or suggesting that the hospital was complicit in murder.

These directions have been issued by the High Court bench comprising Justice Arif Doctor while hearing a Rs 1,000 crore defamation suit filed by Habib Esmail Hospital & Medical Trust against YouTuber Salim Shaikh, HT has reported.

The defamation suit was filed after the YouTuber uploaded several videos and social media posts, bringing allegations of medical negligence during the caesarean surgery of a woman. Allegedly, a surgical gauze piece was found in the woman's abdomen after the surgery.

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As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, the Trust submitted that the woman underwent surgery at a private hospital in Dongri in May and was admitted to Habib Hospital on May 28 after she developed complications. The Trust further said that after obtaining due consent from the concerned patient and her husband, the treating doctors at Habib Hospital proposed an emergency exploratory laparotomy.

However, allegedly, the procedure was halted after the relatives of the patient asked the doctors not to proceed. Besides, the hospital also claimed that a CT scan indicating the presence of a foreign object in the patient's abdomen was not made available to its treating doctors until the following morning. After reviewing the report, the doctors advised shifting the patient to a higher medical centre. Subsequently, she was transferred to Saifee Hospital, where, allegedly, a gauze piece was removed.

It has been claimed by the Trust that no surgical procedure was performed on the patient at Habib Hospital and that the alleged negligence occurred at the earlier private hospital. Further, it added that the CT scan was conducted at Saboo Siddique Hospital and that the treating doctors were independent professionals responsible for their own clinical decisions.

Further, in the plea, the Trust submitted that the dispute escalated after the YouTuber uploaded videos on May 30. In those videos, the YouTuber allegedly projected the hospital "as complicit in or responsible for the alleged medical negligence and an alleged cover-up".

The Trust further claimed that the YouTuber, Shaikh, over the years, approached its trustees seeking financial favours. However, after these requests were declined, the Trust claimed that Shaikh launched a campaign driven by "malafide intent and vendetta".

During the hearing of the defamation suit, the counsel for the Trust, advocates Akshay Pai and Siddhi Bhosale, submitted extracts from the videos that they argued were defamatory.

HT has reported that the High Court, after reviewing the material, found portions of the content to be "per se defamatory". Consequently, the YouTuber submitted to the bench that he would edit the videos and remove the objectionable portions.

The Court has, however, clarified that he would not be restrained from reporting on the incident. However, it directed that the allegations or insinuations attributing blame to the Trust, including references calling the hospital a "kattalkhana" or suggesting that the hospital was complicit in murder, should not be repeated during the pendency of the suit.

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