TCN News
Patna: A legal notice was issued to Saroj Hospital in Kankarbagh for discrimination of patients on the basis of faith.
The notice sent by a Patna High Court advocate, Tabish Sharfuddin, stated that sister of Shahnawaz Hasan, a Muslim patient was refused to be admitted and treated due to her religion earlier last week, thus violating the National Human Rights Commissioner’s Charter of Patient Rights. For the alleged religious bias, the hospital administration has been charged under sections 153 (A), 295 (A) and 505 of the Indian Penal Code, accusing the hospital employees of indulging in promotion of “communal hatred and disharmony.”
The legal notice demanded a public apology from the Saroj Hospital administration, to be published within 48 hours otherwise it would face necessary legal action under the IPC 1860, Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 and Bihar Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Rules 2013.
In the end note, the legal notice warned the staff to caution against such similar incidents in future, failing which they would be “culpable of negligence, hence inviting serious criminal charges and disciplinary action for their inhuman behavior.”
Immediately after the notice was communicated, the hospital administration was quick to respond with a public apology letter signed by a renowned pediatric, Dr Sunil Kumar. In the note, Kumar expressed that the hospital has been treating Hindus and Muslims for a great number of years and has never discriminated patients on the basis of religion. Acknowledging that it might have shown disaffection against a particular patient, the authorities requested an apology for the same.