MHA & Law Ministry find ambiguities in draft legislation bill seeking to prevent violence against doctors

Found ambiguities in the Health and Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage of Property) bill by the Health Ministry, the home ministry and ministry of law and justice have suggested certain amendments in the draft legislation.

The draft bill seeks a maximum of 10 years imprisonment for those who assault doctors and Rs 10 lakh fine for assaulting healthcare personnel. This draft legislation was prepared by the Union Health Ministry earlier in September.

The Health Ministry has planned to place the Health & Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence & Damage of Property), bill before the Union Cabinet and introduce it in the ongoing session of the Parliament.

After several loopholes pointed out by the Law Ministry and the Home Ministry, both the ministries have suggested certain amendments in the bill.

Section 5 of the draft bill, which deals with offences and penalties states that the term of punishment shall be less than 6 months, which may be extended up to 5 years in case of simple injuries. Whereas in case of grievous injuries, the punishment can be extended up to 10 years and not less than three years.

Regarding this section of the bill, the Union Ministry of Law and Justice has suggested that, "As per section (5) of the draft bill, different quantum of imprisonments ranging from 6 months to 10 years have been provided, such situation may create ambiguity regarding the court of appropriate jurisdiction for conducting trials of various offences as prescribed in section 5 of the draft bill. It is thus suggested that a provision may be incorporated to make the offences under the Bill/Act triable by a designated or special court."

Further, the MHA stated that as a general rule, a non-bailable offence carries a term of imprisonment of three years or more, whereas as per clause 7 of the proposed bill, all offences under this Act are cognizable and non-bailable but the offence under section 5(1) carries minimum sentences of six months. The offence under section 5(1) of the proposed bill should, therefore, be a bailable offence.

"In the proposed bill there is no provision regarding the prescription of time limit for completing investigation and filing of the charge sheet. In such a situation, even after the registration of a case, there would be delays in filing of charge sheet which may frustrate the very purpose of the Act. It is proposed that suitable provisions for making the time-bound filing of charge sheet in 60 days may be incorporated in the bill," suggested the Ministry of Law and Justice.

Likewise, in the section 8 of the draft bill, it has been laid down that the investigations would be conducted by officers but not below the rank of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP).

The Law Ministry has realised that the keeping the level of investigations at such higher rank may be counter-productive, thus the administrative department or ministry may consider it appropriate to keep it at the rank of Inspector of police.

Meanwhile, the MHA has also raised a concern that there are not many police officers of the levels of DSP or above in a district.

As per the suggestions by the Law Ministry, there is no fixed compensation and damages against such violation committed by the offenders.

Confirming this development, a senior official of the health ministry said, "We are examining the observations put up by the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Ministry of Home Affairs. We will review the bill.