Lucknow: In a peculiar case, a court in UP has put doctors poor writing on record and imposed a penalty on three doctors for their illegible writing.
The Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court has imposed the penalty of Rs 5000 each on the three doctors reported TOI.
The court was hearing three criminal cases were the injury report of the victims issued by the hospitals from Sitapur, Unnao and Gonda district were “not readable” because of the illegible handwriting of the doctors who had issued them were “very poor”.
The court took it as an obstruction in the court work and summoned the three doctors – Dr TP Jaiswal of Unnao, Dr PK Goel of Sitapur and Dr Ashish Saxena of Gonda.
The bench headed by Justice Ajai Lamba and Justice Sanjay Harkauli imposed the doctors’ penalty for their poor handwriting and for making it hard for the court to read the document.
The Judges asked them to deposit Rs 5,000 penalty in the court’s library to which the doctors pleaded they were overburdened hence erred in writing eligible.
The court taking action in this issue further directed the principal secretary (home), principal secretary (medical & health) and director general (medical & health) to ensure that from here on medical reports must be prepared in “easy language and legible handwriting,” suggesting if possible they should be computer typed.
“The medico-legal report, if given clearly, can either endorse the incident as given by the eyewitnesses or can disprove the incident to a great extent. This is possible only if a detailed and clear medico-legal report is furnished by the doctors, with complete responsibility,” the bench observed.
It added, “The medical reports, however, are written in such shabby handwriting that they are not readable and decipherable by advocates or judges. It is to be considered that the medico-legal reports and post-mortem reports are prepared to assist the persons involved in dispensation of criminal justice. If such a report is readable by medical practitioners only, it shall not serve the purpose for which it is made.”