New Delhi, April 6 The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed criminal proceedings against a doctor who had performed surgery on a one-and-a-half-year-old child, stating that continuing the case would be an abuse of the court's process.
A bench of Justices Pamidigantam Sri Narasimha and Manoj Misra said that criminal law invariably places medical professionals in a different category than ordinary people.
"In this case, no malice is attributed to the doctor, and there is no dispute that the consent form was executed for undertaking a medical procedure. Furthermore, the medical opinion is that the procedure adopted by the doctor was one of the alternatives recognized to address such a medical need," the bench said.
The top court said that continuing criminal proceedings against the appellant would be nothing more than an abuse of the court's process, and therefore, to ensure justice, the proceedings should be quashed.
According to the case, the father of the child filed a complaint alleging that his one-and-a-half-year-old son was admitted to a hospital for a surgical procedure because one of his testicles had not descended into the scrotum.
He alleged that the doctors had obtained his consent for Orchidopexy (i.e., the surgical procedure that moves an undescended testicle into the scrotum), but there was no consent for Orchidectomy (removal of the testicle).