CNN Central News & Networks / ITDC India ePress / ITDC News /Agencies/ Bhopal: CNN Central News & Networks / ITDC India ePress / ITDC News / Agencies, Bhopal: The Allahabad High Court has quashed a cheating case registered against a doctor over the failure of IVF (in vitro fertilisation) treatment. The court made it clear that failure to conceive through an IVF procedure is not, by itself, proof of cheating. No medical procedure can be treated as a legal guarantee of pregnancy, because its success depends on several physical and medical conditions.
A bench of Justice Chavan Prakash made the observations while quashing the criminal proceedings against Bulandshahr-based fertility specialist Dr Sarita Tewatia. The case was linked to a complaint by Jaiveer Singh. According to the complainant, he had approached the doctor for his wife’s IVF treatment. It was alleged that the doctor took Rs 3.5 lakh for the treatment but issued a receipt for only Rs 1.6 lakh. When his wife did not become pregnant even after the treatment, he sought a refund, but the amount was not paid.
The complainant then approached the court. The magistrate had issued summons to the doctor under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code. The doctor challenged this order in the High Court.
The High Court said that to establish the offence of cheating, it is necessary to show that the accused had the intention to deceive from the very beginning. Merely not getting the expected result from treatment does not prove criminal intent. The court also said that medical science is not an exact science and the success of every treatment cannot be guaranteed. The bench held that, on the available facts, no prima facie case of cheating was made out against the doctor. Therefore, the summons order, the revisional court’s order and the entire criminal proceedings were quashed.
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