24 yrs on,SC clears doc of negligence

He was also ordered to pay a compensation of Rs 50,000 to 85-year-old Padam Chandra Singhi,whose wife Leela,a cancer patient,died in 1989.

Desais conviction by the trial court was upheld by the Bombay High Court last year,after which he had moved the Supreme Court.

The primary charge against Desai was that he did not provide personal care by not performing the operation on Leela himself in December 1987 and also acted negligently after the operation,leading to her death in 1989.

However,allowing Desais appeal,an SC bench of Justices A K Patnaik and A K Sikri held that the negligent conduct in the form of his omission was not so gross so as to invite criminal liability under Section 338.

…the crime as mentioned in Section 338 requires proof that the appellant caused the patients condition to the acute stage. Can he be said to have caused such a result,by his omission to act? We do not find it to be so, the court said,while noting that Desais failure to perform the operation himself had not made any

difference.

It was not the cause of the patients death… which was undoubtedly because of the acute chronic cancer condition, the bench said.

It noted that although Desais conduct constituted professional misconduct,the negligence on his part fell short of a criminal offence.

Desai was rightly indicted by the Maharashtra Medical Council for professional misconduct,the court added.