What new criminal code says on punishing medical practitioners for negligence, accidental death
The BNS increased the imprisonment term for causing accidental death from 2 years to a maximum of 5 years.
An additional clause has been introduced for incidents where the person at fault flees or fails to report the incident for which BNS allows imprisonment of up to 10 years. While many doctors thanked the government for “decriminalising” medical negligence cases, all that the amendment to the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Wednesday (December 20) did was keep the punishment for medical practitioners the same as it was under the Indian Penal Code.
The BNS increased the imprisonment term for causing accidental death from 2 years to a maximum of 5 years. An additional clause has been introduced for incidents where the person at fault flees or fails to report the incident for which BNS allows imprisonment of up to 10 years.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah said in Parliament Wednesday that the provisions for increased punishment will reduce cases of hit and run. He, however, added that as the clause is also used for cases of medical negligence, an amendment would be moved to exempt doctors from it.
As per the amendment, “If such act is done by a registered medical practitioner while performing medical procedure, he shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to 2 years, and shall also be liable to fine.”
This means criminal cases can still be lodged for cases of deaths due to medical negligence, but the maximum imprisonment will be less than that of other cases such as road accidents.
The maximum imprisonment for doctors with this amendment will remain the same as what it was under IPC section 304A — up to 2 years of imprisonment or fine or both.
President of Indian Medical Association Dr Sharad Agarwal said: “It is heartening to see the government has accepted the changes we suggested. We had requested medical negligence not be clubbed with other accidental deaths… And that the punishment should not be as harsh. So, even though the punishment for other types of deaths caused by negligence is five years, for medical negligence it remains two.”
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