Excerpt
A single-judge bench consisting of Hon’ble Justice Shircy V. gave orders on the writ petition filed by the Petitioner. This writ is filed by the mother of a minor girl who sought that the Court should issue a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate direction to Respondent No. 1, 2, 3, and 4 and direct them to lodge a complaint of the crime and proceed in accordance with the law by conducting a speedy investigation.
Facts
In this case, the writ petition was filed by the Petitioner who is the mother of a physically and mentally challenged minor girl. The girl had some deformities in her spinal cord by birth itself. Respondent no. 4 has published in the newspaper an advertisement that a free medical camp has been organized by the Aster Medicity hospital in respect to the ailment pertaining to a curve in the spine, neck, etc. for children up to the age of 18. The medical camp was conducted by the hospital and the Petitioner’s daughter was admitted on 06.05.2020 and after the pre-surgical checkup, the surgery was conducted on 08.05.2020. After the surgery, the Petitioner realized that due to the negligence of the doctors who conducted the surgery, her daughter was paralyzed and disabled. The Petitioner filed a complaint before the inspector Cheranalloor Police Station on 18.09.2020, but, the police failed to take any action on her complaint. Therefore, she filed a complaint before the city police commissioner as the earlier inspector was unable to take any action. Due to failure on the part of the city police commissioner, the Petitioner was compelled to file a complaint before the director-general of police to proceed against the hospital authorities. But all the Respondents failed to take any actions against the hospital authorities so the Petitioner filed the writ petition before the Court to issue a writ of mandamus or any other relevant writ to issue directions to the Respondents to proceed with the investigation.
Arguments Advanced
The learned counsel for the Petitioner contended before the Court that the Petitioner’s daughter was admitted to the hospital in good health. It was due to the negligence of the hospital authorities that the minor girl is paralyzed and bedridden. Further, the counsel submits before the Court that Respondent no. 1, 2, and 3 were inefficient in registering the complaint and proceeding with the investigation against the hospital authorities who conducted surgery which led to the filing of this writ petition.
The learned counsel for the Respondent submitted before the Court that crime no. 667 of 2020 was registered before the Cheranalloor police station on 12.11.2020 on the complaint filed by this Petitioner for the offences punishable under section 338, 506 read with section 34 of Indian Penal Code. It was further reported that the investigation was in progress and the case is well investigated by the assistant police commissioner. Further, it was added that documents have been seized from the hospital authorities and also a panel of medical experts have been made for expert opinion to find out whether the complications arose due to the operation conducted by the authorities.
Court’s Decision
The Court found that the crime has already been registered and the investigation has progressed. The investigating agency will take all the considerable steps to complete the investigation within a period of six months from today, considering the special facts and circumstances that the victim involved is a minor and a mentally challenged girl.
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