The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the State government to conduct a fresh inquiry into the death of a patient due to alleged medical negligence during the transplantation of her kidneys and pancreas on May 6, 2010. The inquiry would be based on a Lokayukta report about the case.
Seema Rai, the wife of Major Pankaj Rai, had been admitted to Fortis Hospital for a kidney transplant. Following Seema’s death, her husband lodged a complaint against the hospital with Karnataka Medical Council, alleging that the hospital had transplanted both her kidneys and pancreas simultaneously though it did not have a licence for pancreatic transplants. Rai approached the Lokayukta after the council gave a clean chit to Fortis Hospital. In its report in May 2011, The Lokayukta indicted the hospital, stating that it had no licence as required under the Human Organ Transplantation Act.
A division bench comprising Justice N Kumar and Justice V Suri Appa Rao passed the order on an appeal filed by Fortis Hospital.
The bench directed both complainant Pankaj Rai and Fortis Hospital to submit all documents in their possession to the inquiry committee before October 3.
HC upholds KSHRC appointments
The HC on Tuesday upheld the appointment of retired IAS officer Meera Saxena and retired district judge Chandrashekar Gurubasappa Hungund as members to the Karnataka State Human Rights Commission (KSHRC), rejecting a petition that claimed that the body did not have representation from the SC/ST.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice D H Waghela and Justice B V Nagarathna upheld the appointments and dismissed an appeal filed by M Kumbaiah.
The petitioner submitted that he hailed from the SC community and was a practising advocate at the HC.
He contended that since the establishment of the KSHRC, no persons from the SC/ST communities were appointed as its members.
The division bench upheld a single judge bench order of June 12 on the ground that it was not mandatory to give reservation in the KSHRC as there was no such provision in the State Human Rights Act.