Negligent death of four infants: Bombay HC quashes doctor’s prosecution

The court accepted the doctor’s contention that he was neither present when the wrong injections were administered nor had he prescribed them. The infants died in May 2017 after the nursing staff on duty allegedly administered them wrong injections

The Bombay high court’s Nagpur bench has quashed the prosecution of a doctor charged with alleged negligence that led to the death of four infants at a hospital in Maharashtra’s Amravati, accepting his contention that he was neither present when the wrong injections were administered nor had he prescribed them.

Bombay high court. (File photo)

The infants died in May 2017 after the nursing staff on duty allegedly administered them wrong injections.

Bhushan Katta, the doctor, moved the high court against his trial arguing he was a junior resident doctor in 2017 and was not even there at the NICU when the injections were administered.

A division bench of justices Sunil Shukre and Avinash Gharote noted the petitioner’s absence would at the most amount to dereliction of duty for which departmental action can be taken. It added there was no material on record to indicate that this case meets the requirement of negligence, as laid down by the Supreme Court.

“The material in the charge-sheet is certainly not indicative of the petitioner having prima facie committed an offence... We are, thus, of the view that continuation of the proceedings against the petitioner would clearly be an abuse of the process of law, which would always be unsustainable in law.”