The Delhi High Court on Tuesday called for an inquiry against a doctor who reportedly set up clinics in Delhi and Gurugram even though he was banned from professional practice by a court in the USA in 2011 after he plead guilty to three charges of sexual battery.
A Bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice V. Kameswar Rao took suo motu cognizance of a media report about a specialist in diabetes, hypertension and nephrology running clinics in Delhi and Gurugram after he was made to surrender his licence in the US upon pleading guilty to three counts of sexual battery for unwarranted medical examinations on women patients.
The Bench issued direction to Sanjeev Jain, Member Secretary of the Delhi State Legal Services Authority, to ascertain the name and address of the concerned doctor, conduct an inquiry and “submit a report within four days”.
A notice has also been issued to the Medical Council of India “to place before this court the mechanisms, statutory regime as well as rules and regulations in place to scrutinise and check such practices”. The Centre has also been directed to respond to the notice.
The Bench took note of a media report, which said the doctor was charged in Georgia, USA, with aggravated sexual battery, which is punishable with 25 years imprisonment. He had allegedly penetrated a patient with his finger during a pelvic exam at his clinic in Atlanta in 2009. He was also charged with two counts of sexual battery for unwarranted breast exams on two patients, one of them only 17.
“Reference is made in the report to ill-equipped mechanisms governing medical practice in India and inability of the authorities to detect such cases which has enabled the doctor concerned to practice in India. The issues raised in the newspaper report are of public importance,” the Bench said.
The Bench also noted that the doctor was allowed to leave the US only upon surrendering his United States Medical Licence and was not allowed to practice medicine in any form within the US or any other country.
