In present era,  most of the time, a lenient view is taken  against assault of doctors on the grounds of  emotional circumstances  of relatives and sympathy towards patients, even in cases of blatant injustice imparted towards doctors and nurses. Not   infrequently, assaults of doctors are taken as routine incidents committed under disguise of perceived negligence and sympathy towards patients. The culprits are able to commonly get away with it.

   But this businessman who abused a lady doctor has not been proved to be lucky, at least till this time. He was handed over a jail term of 6 months. Rightly so, courts need to aim at imparting justice and not judge on the basis of projected disturbed emotional state.

         Doctors have become punching bags for all the malaise prevalent in the system. A failing system which is unable to provide health to the people and security to doctors. The rickety system hides behind their hard working doctors and presents them as punching bags. The impunity with which attendant easily and brutally assault doctors is really appalling, should be shameful to law enforcing agencies.

Man gets six-month jail for abusing lady doctor

            Role of media, celebrities, film stars and prominent personalities in spreading the hatred against the medical profession and creating an environment of mistrust is unpardonable. They project   single stray incident   as an example and portray poor image of medical profession as generalization just to earn money and fame for themselves. Doctors need to be careful and remain careful about saving themselves from verbal, physical as well as legal assaults.

  Man gets six-month jail for abusing lady doctor

The incident had taken place on 23 Nov 2017 when Rohinton Umarigar, who was at the Parsi General Hospital for his mother’s treatment used abusive language with the woman doctor who was in charge of the ICU

A Girgaum magistrate court refused leniency to a 52-year-old who used foul language with a woman doctor in 2017 and sentenced him to six months of simple imprisonment. It stated that unwarranted leniency to him would send a wrong signal to society and that he had used unparliamentary language to insult the dignity of a woman.

The incident had taken place on November 23, 2017, when the man, Rohington Umarigar, was at the Parsi General Hospital where his mother was undergoing treatment. He used abusive language with the woman doctor who was in charge of the ICU.

The Nepean Sea Road resident had sought leniency and requested that the court release him by imposing a minimum fine and on a bond of good behaviour. He told the court that he was the only breadwinner of his family. Umarigar’s advocate told the court that the incident occurred at the spur of the moment when his mother was ill. The court said the punishment under Sec 509 of the IPC (word, gesture, act intended to outrage modesty of a woman) was enhanced by the legislation in 2013 looking at the time and seriousness of offences committed against the modesty of women. The court noted that Umarigar had misbehaved a second time with the doctor, which means it was intentional.

“Whenever such type of offence is committed against women, it is against their right to sexual integrity, dignity. It is linked to their right to privacy…in the present matter also, the accused has used unparliamentary words to insult the dignity of woman. He is in his 50s and knows the consequences of his act,” Magistrate Nadeem A Patel said. The court further said that while enhancing the punishment, it was the intention of the legislature to penalize the offence of outraging a woman’s dignity, either physically or verbally. Therefore, in such cases, unwarranted leniency shown will send a wrong message to society. It also imposed a fine of Rs 1,000 on the man.

The man had claimed that he had made a complaint to the hospital management against the doctor for negligence and that this was a counter-complaint. The court refused to accept this defence. It said that even for the sake of argument if it were to be assumed that she had been negligent in her own duty, it did not give him the right to abuse a lady doctor. It relied on the testimony of the victim, as well as her three colleagues at the hospital who testified about the incident.

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