The Madras High Court has directed the Health Secretary to consider awarding suitable compensation to a 75-year-old man who lost his eye sight due to alleged negligence on the part of the Government Ophthalmic Hospital in Egmore here.
Justice M.S. Ramesh passed the orders on a plea moved by R. Marimuthu. According to the petitioner, he underwent an eye surgery on December 27, 2007 and subsequently lost his eye sight allegedly due to negligence of surgeons of the hospital.
Since his representation seeking adequate compensation from the hospital was not considered even after approaching the authorities at different levels, including the Chief Minister’s Cell, he filed the petition. Justice Ramesh said, “Every time the petitioner’s representation was forwarded to one authority or another, the petitioner has been following it by personally visiting them and requesting them to take a decision on his request. ” It is pertinent to mention that when an authority receives the representation from any member of the public, they should not get absolved of their liability by just forwarding it to another authority, but should keep themselves informed on the action taken on the representation, the judge said.
Justice Ramesh directed the Health Secretary to appoint an officer to inquire into the cause of the delay by the respective authorities in giving a reply to the petitioner’s representation, which was given to the Chief Minister’s Cell on June 02, 2010 and noted that the inquiry should be completed in two weeks.
