Classic Case Where Consent Was Taken At 12 O’Clock But Operation Not Carried Out Till 4-5 PM: Allahabad High Court Refuses To Quash Medical Negligence Case Against Doctor
|The Allahabad High Court said the delay in performing the surgery after obtaining consent was unexplained and the Medical Board’s opinion could not be relied upon as all relevant documents were not considered.
The Allahabad High Court has dismissed a petition filed by a gynaecologist accused of medical negligence resulting in the death of a foetus due to delayed caesarean surgery. The Court held that the issues raised involve disputed facts that must be decided at trial and found no grounds for invoking inherent powers under Section 482 CrPC.
A Single Bench of Justice Prashant Kumar observed, “The instant case is a classic case where consent of the family members of the patient was taken around 12 O’clock and thereafter the doctor suggested for operation but operation was not carried out till 4/5 P.M. and further no reason was given by the doctor for delay of 4-5 hours.”
The Court added, “There is a contradiction of time of admission, time of consent and time of operation. And there have been two O.T. notes and a post mortem report. All the documents were not produced before the Medical Board and hence, opinion of the Medical Board would have no credence in this matter.”
Senior Advocate I.K. Chaturvedi appeared for the Applicant, while Government Advocate S. K. Mishra represented the Opposite Parties.
Brief Facts
The Applicant is a gynaecologist. According to the allegations in the FIR, the patient was admitted for delivery. The Applicant advised surgery and took consent from the patient’s family. However, the operation was not performed for several hours, and by the time it was carried out, the foetus was dead.
It was further alleged that the Applicant demanded additional money, refused to provide the discharge slip, and misbehaved with the patient’s relatives. A post mortem was conducted, which recorded the cause of death as prolonged labour.
The police submitted a final report based on an opinion of the Medical Board stating there was no negligence. A protest petition was filed on the ground that the post mortem report, contradictory O.T. notes, and other materials were not placed before the Board. The Magistrate considered the protest petition, case diary, and documents, and summoned the Applicant. Aggrieved, the Applicant approached the High Court seeking quashing of the proceedings.
Reasoning of the Court
The Court noted that the allegations disclosed factual issues requiring trial and that the petitioner could not rely on the Medical Board’s exoneration as decisive. It observed, “This is a case of pure misadventure where the doctor has admitted the patient and after taking go ahead for operation from the patient’s family members, did not perform the operation in time as he was not having the requisite doctor (i.e. anaesthetist ) to perform the surgery.”
The Court took note of the anesthetist's statement that he was called only at 3:30 PM and held that the delay after consent at noon had not been explained.
Commenting on the larger pattern of conduct by some private hospitals, The Court remarked, “It is common knowledge that the private hospitals/nursing homes have started treating the patients as guinea pig/ATM machines only to extort money out of them.”
Rejecting the contention that the pendency of a consumer complaint barred criminal prosecution, the Court said, “It cannot be said that if action has been taken in civil liability, no criminal liability rises.”
The Allahabad High Court found that a prima facie case of criminal medical negligence was made out and declined to interfere at the pre-trial stage.
Accordingly, the application was dismissed with liberty to the Applicant to raise all defences at trial.
Cause Title: Dr. Ashok Kumar Rai v. State of U.P. & Anr. (Neutral Citation: 2025:AHC:121211)
Appearance
Applicant: Senior Advocate I.K. Chaturvedi; Advocate Shailendra Kumar Rai
Opposite Party: Government Advocate S.K. Mishra; AGA S.D. Pandey
Click here to read/download Order