New Delhi, Nov 30 A public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to the Centre and all state governments to frame statutory rules for prosecuting cases of criminal medical negligence, as mandated by the apex court nearly two decades ago in the landmark Jacob Mathew judgment.
The petition flagged a "20-year-long inaction" by the authorities despite directions issued by the Supreme Court on August 5, 2005, requiring the Union and state governments to frame statutory rules or executive instructions governing prosecution of doctors in criminal negligence cases.
Terming the delay “disheartening and disappointing”, the petition stated that “the nation has since been waiting for more than 20 years” for the mandatory rules, which “are yet to be framed and notified even after two decades of the Jacob Mathew judgment” .
The plea questioned the allegedly biased inquiry system, where allegations of medical negligence are assessed by doctor-dominated committees.
"In the absence of Statutory Rules or Executive Instructions as required to be framed in compliance of Jacob Mathew judgement and under the prevailing system of the Inquiry Committees comprising of mostly the doctors only, the medical inquiry reports, in many cases, do not happen to be unbiased,” the PIL stated, adding that “several innocent human beings become victim of torturous, agonising, miserable, ignoble and often butchering deaths in hospitals each year in our country, caused due to gross medical negligence” .
The petition said that patients' families are left “absolutely helpless”, as “there remains hardly any hope of justice for the victims of gross medical negligence in the situation of ‘doctors judging doctors’ obviously favouring their fraternity”.
It referred to an RTI reply from the National Medical Commission (NMC), confirming that “no such guidelines have been framed” and that the process “is under process”.
Further, the petition relied on the 73rd Parliamentary Standing Committee Report (2013), which recorded that medical professionals probing negligence cases are “very lenient towards their colleagues” and that “none of them is willing to testify another doctor as negligent”, resulting in “almost negligible” prosecution rates.
NCRB data, the petition said, records only “astonishing and unbelievable” 1,019 cases of death due to medical negligence over six years in a country of over 1.4 billion people.
Urging immediate intervention, the petition, filed through advocate Devansh Srivastava, contended that “every human life is precious” and that preventable deaths inside hospitals “cannot be brushed aside merely as disciplinary issues”.
The PIL prayed that the Supreme Court issue time-bound directions to ensure the immediate framing and notification of the mandatory rules as directed in the Jacob Mathew judgment; establish multi-stakeholder inquiry panels, including retired judges, civil society members, patient representatives, NHRC nominees, and independent experts, rather than committees comprised solely of doctors; and introduce accountability mechanisms so that cases of gross medical negligence leading to death are investigated impartially and prosecuted effectively.
The PIL said that such reforms are essential to uphold Article 21 of the Constitution, contending that the right to life necessarily includes the right to fair and unbiased investigation into deaths caused by criminal medical negligence. As per the causelist published on the website of the apex court, a Bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta will take up the matter for hearing on Monday (December 1).
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