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Madhya Pradesh High Court on Monday directed the State Government to revisit the provisions of the M.P. Chikitsa Evam Chikitsa Seva Se Sambandh Vyaktiyon Ki Suraksha Adhiniyam, 2008, with a purpose to provide it more teeth and make it effective.

The Division Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Vijay Kumar Shukla directed State Government to invite suggestions from all stakeholders as to how the 2008 Adhiniyam can be made more effective so as to provide deterrence to the perpetrators of violent crimes with the doctors and paramedical staff.

Court said that with the purpose of containing recurrence of such unsavoury incidents with the doctors and paramedical staff the State Government, in doing so, may consider incorporating some parts of the amendments, introduced in the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, in the 2008 Adhiniyam.

Court noted that it can take judicial cognizance of the fact that despite the enactment of the 2008 Adhiniyam, which has made such an offence a cognizable and non-bailable one punishable with imprisonment, the 2008 Adhiniyam, has failed to achieve the intended object.

Importantly, court said that it cannot lose sight of the fact that misbehaviour, abuse, manhandling and many times beating of the doctors and other paramedical staff in the hospitals by the attendants of the patients has these days rather become a very regular feature.

Court added that this tendency was witnessed even during the second wave of Covid-19.

“During that period, the Government had to amend the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897…… wherein, the “act of violence”, was defined comprehensively,’ Court stated.

The court was hearing a PIL, which was registered on the basis of a letter of 2013 sent by Dr. Sanjay Maheshwari, Head of M.P. Birla Hospital & Priyamvada Birla Cancer Research Institute, Satna (M.P.), addressed to the Chief Justice of the Court.

In the letter, Dr. Maheshwari, having 21 years of experience, contended that on Novermber 11, 2013  in the midnight an accident patient arrived and succumbed to the injuries in 3.5 hours. Whereupon, the relatives of the deceased started agitating and in no time a large crowd gathered and started all kinds of violence against the staff in hospital and in residential campus as well.

Apart from this, the family members of the deceased patient also pressurised the police and an FIR was registered against the petitioner and other staff members under section 304 of IPC. Not only the petitioner and other staff members of the hospital were mercilessly beaten but they had to remain confined in jail for quite some time

However, in reply to the present petition, the State submitted that the deceased died due to ignorance of Hospital staff and the relatives of the deceased objected to such conduct of the hospital and this led to a dispute between the parties.

Noting that even though the matter has been registered as a PIL on the letter of the petitioner, who himself was allegedly beaten and was eventually lodged in jail and later, granted bail, thus showing his personal involvement, Court said that the doctors and paramedical staff whose services to the society deserve special recognition need better safety from such unsavoury incidents.

Therefore, with the aforesaid directions, court disposed of the petition.

Case Title: Dr. Sanjay Maheshwari vs. State of M.P. and others