P.K.ASOKAN Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The trembling hands of a surgeon and the shivering mind of a physician do not augur well for the patients at large. Doctors continue to face threats, when a mishap occurs to a patient. Even for the slightest provocation, health personnel are attacked. Despite legislation prevailing in the State of Kerala and the repeated court orders to treat attacks on health personnel as a serious crime, violence against them recur. The casual approach adopted by the courts while dealing with instances of attacks on health personnel also contribute to the tendency to resort to such violence.

(2.) Petitioner is a doctor. He is alleged to have been assaulted on 4/3/2023 by respondents 2 and 3 along with three other persons and a crime was registered as FIR No.250 of 2023 of Nadakkavu Police Station. The offences alleged are under Sec. 323, 325, 427, 506 and 308 r/w sec. 34 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, apart from Sec. 3 and 4 of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damages to Property) Act, 2012 (for short 'the Healthcare Act').

(3.) According to the prosecution, on 4/3/2023, six persons attacked the petitioner and his hospital due to an enmity relating to the death of a foetus. When Naja Salman - the wife of the second respondent gave birth to a still-born child at the Fathima Hospital, Kozhikode, where the petitioner's wife was the Gynaecologist, due to the enmity, accused destroyed the glass and flowerpots of the hospital and attacked the petitioner causing a fracture to his nasal bone.