Kochi: Kerala High Court on Thursday held that the excess fee charged by government doctors cannot be branded as illegal gratification and that such a doctor cannot be prosecuted under the Prevention of Corruption Act.
It is for the government or the Medical Council of India to take action against such doctors if they are found charging excess fee than prescribed, it said.
Justice P. Ubaid passed the order on a petition filed by Dr T. Bhaskaran, the then superintendent at Government Hospital, Kalpetta, challenging the two-year imprisonment awarded to him for charging Rs 350 from a patient. There is no dispute regarding the fact that the government doctors can have private practice at their residence.
“Accepting illegal gratification and excess fee are different. When a doctor is authorised under the law to accept a consultation fee, or to accept medical certificate fee, and if the doctor demands or accepts something in excess of what is authorised under the law, the doctor cannot be prosecuted under PC Act,” the court said.
The Vigilance Special Court, Kozhikode, had awarded him two-year imprisonment and asked him to a pay a fine of Rs 2,000. Vigilance had trapped him following a complaint by a patient in Wayanad in 2000.
