Civil Medical Negligence or Civil Liability for Criminal Medical Negligence: A Dilemma
There is no legal definition of negligence and certainly none for Medical Negligence. Supreme Court in the lead case, Jacob Mathew, adopted the definition from Ratan Lal Dheeraj Lal's Indian Penal Code. Applying the same criteria to judge Medical Negligence as ordinary negligence has created a great confusion about Criminal Medical Negligence and Civil Medical Negligence. There is no separate definition of the two. If a case is filed under Tort or CPA it is civil and if under IPC it is criminal. Besides it is subject to the decision of the Judicial Officer. I submit that there is nothing like Criminal or Civil medical negligence. The liability is Civil or Criminal. Liability arises only after the offence is proved.
Decriminalizing Medical Negligence Death or Criminalizing Medical Practice
The Minister professed before the Parliament to decriminalize medical negligence but what in reality he did was to specifically criminalize practice of medicine by registered medical practitioners The liability and punishment for negligence for a medical practitioner remains same in BNS 106(1) and IPC 304 A. The worse aspect is that under the amended 106(1) the medical professional’s acts are specifically added for criminal liability. It certainly does not decriminalize medical negligence.
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