SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack

Cuttack, April 27: Orissa High Court has directed the state government to comply with the recommendation of Justice P.K. Mishra Commission which was made more than 11 years ago while adjudicating on violence at SCB Medical College and Hospital to make an ex-gratia payment of Rs 50,000 each to the two persons who were injured because of brutal assault by doctors.

The court has directed the state government “to ensure payment of the ex-gratia amount as directed by the commission within a period of eight weeks”.

The violence had followed the death of Bhagaban Mohanty, a patient at the hospital, because of alleged negligence of doctors on July 16, 2000 evening.

Manoj Kumar Mohanty (son of the deceased) and his nephew Biswa Bijaya Mohanty, who confronted with the doctors for their alleged negligence, were brutally assaulted by a group of junior doctors and postgraduate students.

The incident, in which a lawyer was a victim, triggered public uproar and state-wide agitation as lawyers forced the state government to appoint a judicial commission headed by a sitting judge of Orissa High Court, Justice P.K. Mishra, on August 7, 2000, to probe the violence.

The Justice P.K. Mishra Commission submitted its report on November 5, 2002. The commission recommended payment of Rs 50,000 ex-gratia each to Manoj and Biswa Bijaya as both were found to be “physically and mentally tortured”.

The report was later tabled in the Assembly along with an action-taken report on August 11, 2006. But, the recommendation for ex-gratia payment was not complied with.

Manoj and Biswa Bijaya filed a petition in the high court in 2012 seeking intervention against inaction on the recommendation of the judicial commission for ex-gratia payment. The petition was languishing till it was taken up earlier this month.

Responding to the notice, the state government filed a counter affidavit on April 21, 2014. In his affidavit, home department joint secretary Alok Kumar Kar contended: “The recommendation of the commission for payment of ex-gratia amount was not agreed to by the state government in view of the fact that the entire cost of medical treatment of the two injured persons — Rs 44,404 — was borne by the state government.”

The single-judge bench of Justice B.K. Patel, while disposing off the petition on April 25, however, rejected the state government’s claim.

“Such a stand is not tenable in view of the fact that the observation of the commission of inquiry would go to show that the ex-gratia payment was directed to be paid both on account of physical and mental torture. It has nothing to do with treatment,” the bench ruled.

“The observations of the commission of inquiry go to show that in course of incident the petitioners (Manoj and Biswa Bijaya) were brutally assaulted by the doctors who were government employees and students who were studying in a government college. In such circumstances, the state government ought to have complied with the recommendation of the commission without taking technical plea to have spent meagre amount on their treatment,” the bench further observed.