New Delhi: The Orissa Excessive Courtroom has dominated that a physician can not be held criminally accountable for prescribing a drug of any pharmaceutical firm for treating severe ailments like most cancers, until the drug is hazardous, of substandard high quality, or restricted by the federal government, a TOI report mentioned.
The court docket made the ruling whereas quashing legal proceedings in opposition to Dr. Rabindra Kumar Jena, a former professor and head of haematology at SCB Medical Faculty & Hospital, Cuttack.
Courtroom clarifies no undue favour in prescribing accepted medication
Justice Aditya Kumar Mohapatra, who handed the order, mentioned, “For that purpose, if the pharma firm is benefited, the identical can not be handled as an undue favour or loss to the government exchequer.” The decide famous that encouraging such legal proceedings would discourage docs from offering truthful and fearless remedy.
Background of the case
State vigilance had registered a case in opposition to Dr. Jena primarily based on an FIR filed by S.Okay. Samal, DSP of vigilance cell, Cuttack, on December 12, 2017. It was alleged that Dr. Jena abused his place by favouring sure pharmaceutical firms and violated Odisha State Therapy Fund (OSTF) tips by prescribing costlier chemotherapy medication to poor sufferers.
Dr. Jena challenged the legal proceedings within the Excessive Courtroom in 2024.
Excessive Courtroom finds no violations of OSTF tips
Justice Mohapatra noticed that the OSTF tips don’t prohibit the prescription of costlier medicines if they’re obligatory for remedy. The court docket mentioned, “The OSTF tips by no means envisage or prohibit or put any embargo to prescribe costlier medicine, particularly when the identical is best and obligatory for remedy.”The court docket additional mentioned that the screening committee scrutinising the prescriptions didn’t elevate any objections.
Courtroom finds prosecution arbitrary and unlawful
In his April 16 order, Justice Mohapatra mentioned, “In view of the foregoing causes, the very initiation of instantaneous legal proceedings, with out conducting a preliminary inquiry by consultants of the involved area, as noticed above, is discovered to be ex-facie unlawful.
Furthermore, no prima facie case of the alleged offences is made out from the un-controverted allegations narrated within the FIR in opposition to the petitioner. Moreover, the arbitrariness, discrimination and blatant illegalities on the a part of the prosecution are obvious on the face of this case.”
The court docket concluded, “In such a view of the matter, this court docket has no hesitation in arriving on the conclusion that the current case falls squarely throughout the parameters, with regard to quashing of a continuing, laid down by the Supreme Courtroom.
Therefore, permitting the additional continuance of the current legal prosecution would most undoubtedly quantity to an abuse of means of legislation.”
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