Posted By :  Admin1

The facts are 
The Section dealing with death due Rash and Negligent act that is Section 304 (A) was the one applicable to medical negligence. This section prescribed an imprisonment of up to 2 years and/or fine if you were held guilty. 
It has now been replaced with a more stringent Section 106 which says any person found guilty of a Rash and Negligent act would be punished with imprisonment up to 5 years and fine. 
However an exception has been made for proved medical negligence by Registered Medical practitioners for which the *punishment remains at a  maximum up to 2 years and fine
The change is however significant in the sense that the punishment  with imprisonment and fine is mandatory if you are proved criminally negligent.

However the procedure to be followed for levying such charges which has been prescribed by the Jacob Mathews Judgment of the Supreme Court remains. *This means that a Medical board has to first certify that a RMP has been prima facie negligent before the police can file charges against him or her 

The fact however is that the Honorable Home Minister had stated a desire to keep medical professionals away from criminal charges but that has not happened. There has been no change in the new CrPC about maximum punishment for Registered Medical practitioners but the option of levying only fine has been taken away! 

All Medical Associations therefore need to go back to the government to consider keeping things at Status quo if not completely keeping medical negligence out of criminal charges 
Dr Vivek Dwivedi President 
Dr Vikrant Desai Hon Secretary
Dr Sudhir Naik Chairman Medicolegal cell
Dr Lalit Kapoor Advisor
Dr Niranjan Agarwal Convenor
Dr Ajit Desai Convenor