How the current laws can shield doctors and police from violence

Source: The post is based on an article “How the current laws can shield doctors and police from violence” published in the Indian Express on 29^th July 2022.

Syllabus: GS 2 Government Policies and Interventions for Development in various sectors and Issues arising out of their Design and Implementation.

Relevance: Draft Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence & Damage to Property) Bill, 2019,

News: Recently, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare admitted that it has withdrawn the Draft Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence & Damage to Property) Bill, 2019,

About the bill

Doctors are increasingly facing violence and “malicious prosecution”. Therefore, the bill would have made such violence a non-bailable and cognisable offence with a jail term of up to five years.

Reasons for the withdrawal of the bill

According to reports, the government feared that other professional groups, like lawyers and police, would demand similar laws.

Instead of demanding untenable pieces of legislation, the pressure groups of medical bodies should focus on the effective use of already available legal shields like the IPC and CrPC, and focus afresh on malicious prosecution.

Issues with the malicious prosecution

It causes an assault on reputation. For example, a woman doctor in Dausa district of Rajasthan committed suicide when FIR was registered against her for alleged misconduct and negligence.

Even the government personnel get certain immunities while performing “sovereign” functions. For example, the police machinery gets immunity from tortuous liability while performing this sovereign function like investigating a case, maintaining law and order (and arrest and detention), etc.

What should be done?

There should be a collective fight against the tyranny of malicious prosecution and tutored reporting.

The Law Commission of India, in “Wrongful Prosecution (Miscarriage of Justice): Legal Remedies” report 2018 suggested a draft law. However, it was mostly compensatory, which talks about criminal remedies, but barely touches on preventive aspects. Therefore, efforts should be made to institute preventive and substantive fear through various measures as given below.

The IPC Sections 182 and 211 (for both public servant and private complainant) and section 166-A (for public servants) deals with acts of omission and commission to institute false charges. The Law Commission also looks at their role as possible remedies.

The Section 211 of the IPC can be an effective tool to penalise false charges made with intent to injure a person (including their reputation). The section is stringent with imprisonment up to seven years.

Disciplinary action should also be taken by professional bodies like the bar associations and prosecution bodies, in case of tutoring and abetment of false charges.

Lessons should be learnt from the recent verdict of the trial courts in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan, where around 52 convictions have been made for malicious prosecution in a special drive recently.

The medical bodies can create a corpus to fund legal representation in every case of vandalism, violence and disruption of healthcare functions and premises to ensure quick and certain convictions.