Case name: Jamshid PV vs State of Kerala
A single bench of Justice A Badharudeen of Kerala High Court denied anticipatory bail to a man who is accused of manhandling a doctor for allegedly misbehaving with his wife while treating her at a hospital.
Justice said that it would be difficult for a doctor to examining patients without touching patients and also difficult to pursue his profession if a patient is aggrieved by the doctor touching him or her during clinical examination.
Justice said “Doctors, who had turmoiled their energy and time to learn the method of treating patients, when examining patients clinically, cannot do the said exercise without touching the patients. If a patient, who wants treatment, is aggrieved in the matter of touch on the body of the petitioner as part of the examination, it is difficult for a doctor to do his medical profession by resorting to clinical examination. The same would include placing of Stethoscope on the left chest portion of the patient to observe and evaluate the heartbeat”.
As per the case, complainant who is doctor by profession was on duty on January 8th, while examining the wife of the accused, the accused caught hold of the doctor’s collar and also slapped him. Accused alleged that the doctor touched the body of the accused man’s wife.
The court noted that, the wife of the accused was examined by the doctor in the presence of two sisters in an open space at the casualty. Also, the case of the misbehavior against the doctor was registered by the applicant’s wife only after the registration of the crime against the accused.
By the above observations, the court refused to grant anticipatory bail to the accused.
