MADURAI: Quacks are a menace to society and government officials are duty bound to deal with such persons with an iron hand, observed the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court.
Justice K. Murali Shankar observed that quacks were playing with the lives of innocent people, who were coming to them believing that they were genuine doctors. The government through the officials concerned are duty bound to deal with such persons with an iron hand, the court observed.
The court was hearing a petition filed by K. Amirthalal of Tenkasi district. The petitioner sought action against government officials who took action on his nursing home and medical shop in the district. He also sought a refund of the fine imposed in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The State submitted that officials had inspected Surya Nursing Home and AMK Medical Shop situated in Panpoli in Tenkasi district. A fine of ₹5,000 was imposed for not following COVID-19 guidelines.
The State submitted that the government officials found 14,73,808 violations and collected a sum of ₹14,59,21,000. Consideration of refund of the collected fine amount to the individual was detrimental to the efforts taken by the Public Health and the Frontline workers, who were involved in combating COVID-19 pandemic risking their own lives.
The court took note of a report submitted by the Block Medical Officer to the Deputy Director of Health Service about the hospital and said that some persons were giving Allopathy treatment to patients without having necessary qualification. It was submitted that the petitioner himself was not a qualified doctor.
When the court sought to know the qualification of the petitioner, he produced a Diploma Certificate issued by the Indian Institute of Alternative Medicines. The system of medicine was shown as Electro Homoeopathic Medicine. He did not produce any specific order to show that persons who completed Electro Homoeopathic Medicine course can practise Allopathy system of medicine.
The court observed that it was very unfortunate that the officials, even after coming to know about the same, were satisfied with imposing the fine and allowed the petitioner and others to continue to practise the Allopathy system of medicine.
The court directed the officials to ascertain whether the petitioner and others were having the required qualification to practise Allopathy system of medicine and if not to take appropriate action in three months. The court dismissed the petition.
