Doctors cannot claim immunity from POCSO Act, says HC
CHENNAI, DECEMBER 20, 2018 00:00 IST
Doctors cannot claim complete immunity from being prosecuted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012 and attempt to get discharged from such cases without facing a full fledged trial and proving their innocence, the Madras High Court has held.
Justice V. Parthiban passed the ruling while dismissing a criminal revision petition filed by urologist P. Rajendiran of Puducherry who had been accused of having sexually misbehaved with a 13-year-old girl, studying in Class IX, in the guise of physically examining her for the complaint of stomach ache.
The petitioner’s counsel had relied upon ‘A Manual on Clinical Surgery (Special Investigations and Differential Diagnosis)’ to drive home his point that when abdominal findings were not sufficient to account for symptoms a patient was complaining of, doctors could think of extra abdominal causes and examine the chest and chest wall.
Charges levelled
However, unimpressed with such submissions, the judge said, the charge levelled against the petitioner by the prosecution and the defence taken by him to prove his innocence had to be necessarily tested in the form of trial by adducing evidence in order to find out truthfulness or veracity of the charges framed against him.
“If the case of the petitioner is to be accepted that the medical practitioners need to be protected under all circumstances under Section 41 of POCSO Act, it would mean that no medical practitioner can ever be prosecuted and convicted even if there is involvement in POCSO offence.
“Such scenario would not have been the intention of the Parliament while enacting the law. After all, the objective of the POCSO Act is to protect the children from the perpetrators of sexual assault and the objectives of the Act have to be given effect to and such objectives cannot stand stymied at the threshold by discharging the person like the petitioner,” the judge concluded.
CHENNAI, DECEMBER 20, 2018 00:00 IST
Doctors cannot claim complete immunity from being prosecuted under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act of 2012 and attempt to get discharged from such cases without facing a full fledged trial and proving their innocence, the Madras High Court has held.
Justice V. Parthiban passed the ruling while dismissing a criminal revision petition filed by urologist P. Rajendiran of Puducherry who had been accused of having sexually misbehaved with a 13-year-old girl, studying in Class IX, in the guise of physically examining her for the complaint of stomach ache.
The petitioner’s counsel had relied upon ‘A Manual on Clinical Surgery (Special Investigations and Differential Diagnosis)’ to drive home his point that when abdominal findings were not sufficient to account for symptoms a patient was complaining of, doctors could think of extra abdominal causes and examine the chest and chest wall.
Charges levelled
However, unimpressed with such submissions, the judge said, the charge levelled against the petitioner by the prosecution and the defence taken by him to prove his innocence had to be necessarily tested in the form of trial by adducing evidence in order to find out truthfulness or veracity of the charges framed against him.
“If the case of the petitioner is to be accepted that the medical practitioners need to be protected under all circumstances under Section 41 of POCSO Act, it would mean that no medical practitioner can ever be prosecuted and convicted even if there is involvement in POCSO offence.
“Such scenario would not have been the intention of the Parliament while enacting the law. After all, the objective of the POCSO Act is to protect the children from the perpetrators of sexual assault and the objectives of the Act have to be given effect to and such objectives cannot stand stymied at the threshold by discharging the person like the petitioner,” the judge concluded.
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