Chapter 3: The Doctor and the Law

Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)

The entire law is covered in 484 sections in two schedules. These two provide machinery for the punishment of offenders against the substantive criminal law of the land.

Codified Law or Statute Law

law as laid down by the State and the Parliament.

Common Law or Law of Torts

includes certain wrongs or injuries caused by one man to another, which are usually not covered by statute law.

Indian Penal Code (IPC)

defines the various offenses and provides the punishments.

Supreme Court

the highest judicial tribunal of the country and is located at New Delhi, the capital of India.

High Court

the highest judicial tribunal in the State and is located usually in the State Capital.

Session’s Court

this is the highest judicial tribunal for district and is located in the district head quarters.

Magistrate’s courts

criminal courts presided over by the Judicial/ Metropolitan Magistrates.

Executive Magistrates

usually officers of revenue department and placed in charge of a district, subdivision or taluk and have all the powers of a district or sub divisional magistrate.

Judicial Magistrates

magistracy differs according to the population figures.

Special Magistrate

a metropolitan, judicial or executive magistrate, appointed for special purposes.

Railway Magistrate

the rank of First Class Judicial Magistrate and is appointed to try cases of offenses under The Railway Act.

Juvenile Magistrate

principal magistrate/ a chief judicial magistrate and usually a woman and she presides over a Juvenile Court and tries juvenile offenders, who are children less than eighteen years of age and are accused of having committed a crime.

Warrant case

a case relating to commission of a cognizable offense. It makes one liable for arrest without warrant.

Summons case

means that in cases of noncognizable offenses and being not a warrant case, a police officer has no authority to arrest without warrant.

Public Prosecutor

a public servant under section 24 CrPC, is a legal expert, appointed by Central or State Government for conducting court prosecutions or other proceedings like appeal, etc. on behalf of the government.

Coroner’s Court

a court of inquiry and not court for trial presided by the officer appointed by the government

Open verdict

it means that the inquest is adjourned indefinitely due to want of information and could be reopened at any later date if further information becomes available.

Rigorous imprisonment with hard labour

all courts and First Class Magistrate can pass this order.

Simple imprisonment

all courts and magistrates can pass this order.

Solitary imprisonment

all courts and First Class Magistrates can pass this order.

Exhumation

a lawful disinterment or digging out of a buried dead body from the grave for examination.

Inquest

the preliminary inquiry into the cause of sudden, suspicious and unnatural death, which is apparently not due to natural causes.

Magistrate Inquest

an inquest conducted by a District Magistrate, Subdivisional Magistrate, and magistrate of the first class rank or any other magistrate as empowered by the State Government.

Police Inquest

held by police office not below the rank of Senior Head Constable.

Postmortem Reports

documentary evidence, always written by the doctor who has done the autopsy, in prescribed forms.

Coroner’s Inquest

an official, public enquiry, led by a coroner (and in some cases involving a jury) into the circumstances of a sudden, unexplained or violent death.

Medical examiner’s system of inquest

a type of inquest held by medical practitioner.

Procurator Fiscal

a type of inquest, charged statutorily with the duty of making public inquiry into the causes of fatal accidents, and in special circumstances of sudden death

Warrant

an authority under the seal and signature of the presiding officer of a court to a person to be arrested and produced before the court to be dealt with according to law.

Conduct Money

the fee offered to a witness in civil case, at the time of serving of summons to cover the travelling expenses for attending the court.

Medical certificates

documents issued by a doctor only after confirming for what reasons it is being issued.

Death certificate

must be issued in a specified manner mentioning facts like name, age, sex, address, cause of death, etc.

Medicolegal reports

documents prepared by the Medical Officers after being asked or ordered by the Police Officer or Magistrate.

Dying declaration

a statement, verbal or written (or even by gestures) made by a deceased person before his/her death, relating to the circumstances leading to death.

Dying deposition

almost a dying declaration. It is more valuable than dying declaration as the accused has got the opportunity to challenge and cross-examine.

Oral evidence

always superior to documentary evidence in trial for the reasons that, the person has to prove on oath that the evidence is true and is cross-examined.

Direct Oral Evidence

Refers to facts, which are seen, heard or perceived by any other sense.

Circumstantial Oral Evidence

It proves one or more of the subsidiary circumstances or associated events.

Witness

person who provides evidence about a fact in the court of law under oath and being summoned to court to attend without failure and under penalty.

Common Witness

that person, who narrates what he/she has heard or perceived or states the facts observed by him/her.

Expert witness

on account of his/her special professional training and skill, is capable of giving opinion or deducing inferences from the facts observed by himself or by others.

Medical witness

generally considered as both common and expert witness.

Skilled or scientific witness

who has specialised knowledge of technical subjects. He/she may be expert but usually he/she has no first hand knowledge of the particular case.

Hostile Witness

makes statements against the interest of the party who has called him/her.

Unfavourable Witness

one called by a party to prove a particular fact, but fails to prove such fact or proves an opposite fact.

Scene of crime

the place of any suspicious or unnatural death.

Powers of Session Courts

* It takes up only the cases of criminal offenses referred by Magistrate’s courts.
* It can pass all sentences authorized by the law; however, the death sentence passed by it has to be confirmed by the High Court.

Powers of the High Court

* It is also a court of appeal.
* It can take up all cases of criminal offenses.
* It can pass all sentences authorized by the law

Powers of Supreme Court

* It is a court of appeal.
* It supervises and interprets laws in the country.
* The law declared by Supreme Court is binding on all other courts of the country.

Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)

It is a procedural law. It deals with the constitution and structure of criminal courts, their classification and powers, and prescribes the procedure for criminal proceedings.