The Supreme Court today issued a ruling, which is aimed at providing relief to doctors who are continually harassed by patients and their families over accusations of medical negligence. The Court ruled that a "simple lack of care or an error of judgment or an accident” does not mean that negligence in the medical profession.

"It would not be conducive to the efficiency of the medical profession if a doctor is to administer medicine with a halter around his neck”, said a division bench of Justices Dalveer Bhandari and H S Bedi.

While specifying that doctors inevitably ended up becoming the first human casualty for patients or their families who have been dejected by a treatment which has proved to be unsuccessful. The bench specified - "a surgeon with shaky hands under fear of legal action cannot perform a successful operation and a quivering physician cannot administer the end-dose of medicine to his patient”.

With the aforementioned ruling, the Supreme Court has denied the term "medical negligence" for the very first time, now making it much more difficult to initiate criminal proceedings against doctors for treatments which have not gone as planned.