Karnataka High Court: B. Veerappa, J. allowed a petition filed by two nurses for quashing of an order whereby they were held liable for the death of a child due to their negligence.
Petitioners herein were the two nurses of a hospital who had approached the Court challenging the order of Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) which had held both of them responsible for negligent death of a child. The complaint of negligence was filed by respondent whose child had died in the hospital. KMC passed an order holding that the complainant had failed to prove negligence on the part of doctors, but it held the petitioner-nurses liable for negligence and directed the Medical Superintendent to take action against them.
Counsel for the petitioner, N. Ravindranath Kamath contended that nurses are not medical practitioners as per the provisions of the Karnataka Medical Registration Act, 1961. Whereas counsel for the respondent, R. Nagendra Malik contended that only because of the negligence on the part of the petitioners, the complainant lost her child.
The Court held that a comprehensive reading of Sections 2, 13 and 15 of the Karnataka Medical Registration Act, lead to the conclusion that nurses could not be categorized as medical practitioners practicing medicine. Thus, KMC had no jurisdiction to take action against the petitioner.
In view of the above, holding the impugned order to be in excess of KMC’s jurisdiction, it was quashed. [Medical Superintendent, Kasturba Hospital v. Fathima Bi, Writ Petition No. 35640 of 2012 decided on 18-06-2019]
