No Special Cell For Protecting Doctors From Unwarranted Cases: Maharashtra To Court

The Maharashtra government informed the Bombay High Court on Tuesday that it had decided against constituting a special cell of experts to protect doctors against unwarranted police complaints and cases registered by patients' relative.

Earlier this month, Advocate General (AG) Ashutosh Kumbhakoni had told a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni that the state government was "thinking of" forming a cell to look into complaints of negligence filed against doctors, and only if the committee felt a complaint seemed prima facie genuine, would a case be registered.

However, on Tuesday, the Advocate General told the bench that a government resolution (GR) issued in March 2010 already provided for district-level committees of experts to weed out frivolous or unwarranted complaints against doctors, and protect them from being named in bogus cases of medical negligence.

The submissions were made when the bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by one Dr Rajeev Joshi seeking judicial intervention to curb violence against healthcare professionals.

According to the plea, Maharashtra witnesses the maximum number of such instances of violence, and the state government had failed to implement the existing legal provisions, including the Maharashtra Medicare Service, Persons and Medicare Institutions (Prevention of violence and damage or loss of property) Act, to curb such instances.