Delhi Police has instructed its district leaders and station house officers to ensure that court summons are properly delivered to doctors, expressing concern over delays in investigations due to this issue, according to an official directive.
In criminal trials, doctors are often summoned as witnesses to provide testimony on the contents of medical reports, including forensic and postmortem findings, an official explained.
When summons are not delivered effectively, investigations and court proceedings can be prolonged, the official stated.
The official circular highlighted a typical issue, stating: “it has been observed that while serving summons in hospital to doctors, no efforts are made by the process servers to find out the present status of the doctors and summons are left in the Medical Record Department (MRD) of the hospital which causes unnecessary delay in serving the summons to the concerned doctor.”
The term “process servers” refers to individuals responsible for delivering legal notices and documents, the official clarified.
To address this problem, the circular referred to a court ruling from a 2018 case, outlining steps that process servers must take to ensure proper delivery of summons. Specifically, process servers should:
- Serve the summons to the Medical Record Department, inquiring if the concerned doctor is currently employed at the hospital.
- If the doctor is not present, inquire about their current location and serve the summons there if possible.
- If the doctor’s whereabouts are unknown, the Medical Record Department should designate another doctor who can confirm the concerned doctor’s handwriting and signature.
- If no suitable doctor is available, any doctor from the same department may be authorized to provide testimony.
This directive aims to streamline the process of summoning doctors for court appearances, ensuring that legal proceedings are not unnecessarily delayed.
(With PTI inputs)
