Supreme Court Quashes Case Against Doctor Over Child’s Surgery
"In the instant case, no malice is attributed to the doctor and there is no dispute that the consent form was executed for undertaking a medical procedure."
By : PTI
Update: 2026-04-06 17:20 GMT
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday quashed criminal proceedings against a doctor who had performed a surgery on a one-and-a-half-year-old child saying continuance of the case would be an abuse of the process of the court.
A bench of Justices Pamidigantam Sri Narasimha and Manoj Misra said criminal law has invariably placed medical professionals on a pedestal different from ordinary mortals.
"In the instant case, no malice is attributed to the doctor and there is no dispute that the consent form was executed for undertaking a medical procedure. Further, the medical opinion is to the effect that the procedure adopted by the doctor was one of the alternatives recognised to meet such a medical exigency," the bench said.
The top court said continuance of criminal proceedings against the appellant would be nothing but an abuse of the process of the court and, therefore, to secure the ends of justice, the same is liable to be quashed.
According to the case, the father of the child made a complaint alleging that his son, aged one-and-a-half years, was admitted to a hospital for a surgical procedure as one of his testicles had not descended into the scrotal sac.
According to him, doctors had obtained his consent for Orchidopexy (i.e., the surgical procedure that moves an undescended testicle into the scrotum), but there was no consent for Orchidectomy (removal of the testicle).