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The Apex court has discharged the gynaecologist, paediatrician and the hospital administrative who were arrayed as accused in the Kottiyoor rape case. The main accused in this case was priest of the church.
When the victim was facing with the stomach pain, she was brought to the hospital to the cure the stomach pain. After examination it was found that victim was in an advanced stage of pregnancy and was actually suffering from labour pain and delivered the child.
The Doctor other staffs were charged under section 19(1) of the POCSO Act. Section 19(1) imposes a legal obligation on a person to notify to the relevant authorities when the individual has knowledge of the offence which was breached by the hospital authorities.
The authorities asked to quash the criminal case against them which was rejected by the Kerala High Court then they approached the Supreme Court. In the apex court the bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan has allowed the appeal. It was contended that, the hospital authorities were aware that the girl is below 18 years of age i.e. Minor there they has a legal duty to inform about her pregnancy to the authorities.
The bench declared the argument is too ‘farfetched’, and observed that, “The expression used is “knowledge” which means that some information received by such a person gives him/her knowledge about the commission of the crime. There is no obligation on this person to investigate and gather knowledge. If at all, the appellants were not careful enough to find the cause of pregnancy as the victim was only 18 years of age at the time of delivery. But that would not be translated into criminality.”
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