Central Information Commission
Shishir Chand vs Medical Council Of India on 19 August, 2021
के ीय सूचना आयोग
Central Information Commission
बाबा गंगनाथ माग, मुिनरका
Baba Gangnath Marg, Munirka
नई द ली, New Delhi - 110067
ि तीय अपील सं या / Second Appeal No. CIC/DMDCL/A/2019/142070/MEDCI
Shri Shishir Chand ... अपीलकता/Appellant
VERSUS/बनाम
PIO, National Medical Commission ... ितवादीगण /Respondent
Through: Smt. Pragya Juneja
Date of Hearing : 16.08.2021
Date of Decision : 19.08.2021
Chief Information Commissioner : Shri Y. K. Sinha
Relevant facts emerging from appeal:
RTI application filed on : 01.05.2019
PIO replied on : 11.06.2019 & 14.06.2019
First Appeal filed on : 17.06.2019
First Appellate Order on : Nil
2ndAppeal/complaint received on : 30.08.2019
Information soughtand background of the case:
The Appellant filed an RTI application dated 01.05.2019 seeking the following information:-Page 1 of 6
etc The CPIO/Section Officer vide letter dated 11.06.2019 furnished a point wise reply to the Appellant, attaching a copy of proceedings of meeting of Ethics Sub Committee. Further, the CPIO/Dy. Secretary (Admin) vide letter dated 14.06.2019 furnished a certified copy of the resignation letter dated 13.02.2019 of Dr. Sanjay Shrivastava, Secretary-General of MCI, BoG.
Dissatisfied with the response received from the CPIO, the Appellant filed a First Appeal dated 17.06.2019 and the same remained un-adjudicated .
Aggrieved and dissatisfied, the Appellant approached the Commission with the instant Second Appeal.
Facts emerging in Course of Hearing:
A written submission dated 08.08.2021 has been received from the Appellant providing a detailed background of the case. Relevant points highlighted by the Appellant in his submissions are as follows:
That on 21.05.2011, the Appellant on account of an unfortunate and tragic incident lost his younger brother, Mr. Vishal Chand, who was just 33 years old and an ICWA professional working as Assistant Manager- Finance with Timken India Ltd, a US MNC's India subsidiary at Jamshedpur.
It is stated that the death of Mr. Vishal Chand was an act of "institutional murder" at the hands of a fake and unqualified Page 2 of 6 impersonator, a serial offender and an illegal beneficiary of medical seat allotment scam. The impersonator was then employed as Senior Surgeon- Casualty in the Emergency Ward of Tata Main Hospital (TMH), Jamshedpur, Jharkhand.
The Appellant has alleged that his younger brother was wrongly diagnosed and due to medical negligence and carelessness of the doctor, the Appellant's brother was denied and deprived of the correct medical treatment and consequently he passed away.
The impersonator was subsequently dismissed from the services of the hospital after a series of negative and uncharitable news report published by "The Telegraph", Jharkhand edition about the death of the Petitioner's brother.
Subsequently, new facts and evidences emerged that showed that both the MBBS admission and MBBS degree of the impersonator was managed through fraud and deceit.
Further, in the last two years , additional evidences have come to light that points to the fact that even the Intermediate mark sheet of the impersonator was managed through illegal assistance by his father, Mr. Jitendra Nath Chhabra, an alleged fake employee of UP High Secondary Board, Allahabad.
Recently on 25.07.2021, Haldwani Police in the district of Nainital, Uttarakhand acting on a criminal complaint of the appellant dated 03.10.2020 registered a F.I.R against the impersonator and his father u/s 120 B, 420, 467, 468, 470 and 471 IPC.
In order to ensure social distancing and prevent the spread of the pandemic, COVID-19, hearing through video conference was scheduled after giving prior notice to both the parties. Both parties are heard at length wherein the facts discussed hereinabove have been contended by the respective parties.
The Respondent is represented by Ms. Pragya Juneja who stated that since the National Medical Commission is a recently formed body, while the history of the case at hand is quite old, she could not trace all relevant records to present before the Commission during the hearing. She sought time to make a fresh attempt to trace any further information with respect to the Appellant's queries raised in his RTI application dated 01.05.2019.
Decision:
The facts of this case is squarely covered by the earlier decision dated 07.04.2017 passed by an earlier Bench CIC/YA/A/2016/000980 and CIC/YA/A/2016/001681, arising out of the grievance of the Appellant due to the untimely demise of his younger brother on account of alleged medical negligence of Dr. Atul Chhabra of Tata Memorial Hospital, Jamshedpur. In order to establish his case, the Appellant has been filing numerous cases which originate out of the same cause of action and has been agitating the issue before various public authorities. It is noted that pursuant to a past decision of an erstwhile Bench of the Commission in the case numbers Page 3 of 6 CIC/YA/A/2015/000986 & CIC/YA/A/2015/001656, dated 23.12.2015, the decision of issuing a mere warning to the said Dr. Chhabra was reviewed by the Ethics Committee and appellant was informed that it was recommended that services of Dr. Chhabra be suspended for atleast six months. However, the action of suspension thereby penalising the delinquent doctor was never implemented which the appellant found unfair. Hence, the Appellant filed applications to unearth the actual educational qualifications of Dr. Chhabra and action taken against him for gross medical negligence.
A list of cases filed by the Appellant and heard so far by the Commission since 2014 till date are as under:
Date of Second Appeal Number Appellant Respondent CIC/IC Decision CIC/YA/A/2015/001656 Mr. SHISHIR Medical Council of Yashovardhan 23/12/2015 CHAND India Azad Mr. SHISHIR Medical Council of Yashovardhan CIC/YA/A/2015/000986 31/12/2015 CHAND India Azad Mr. SHISHIR All India Institute of CIC/LS/A/2013/001321 Sushma Singh 13/01/2014 CHAND Medical Sciences Mr. SHISHIR Directorate General CIC/LS/A/2013/001322 Sushma Singh 13/01/2014 CHAND of Health Services National Consumer Neeraj Kumar CIC/NCDRC/A/2018/158802 SHISHIR Disputes Redressal Gupta 11/05/2020 CHAND Commission SHISHIR Divya Prakash CIC/CBRUI/A/2018/124507 CBI 06/09/2019 CHAND Sinha Medical Council of CIC/MEDCI/A/2018/169752 Shishir Chand Bimal Julka 31/05/2019 India SHISHIR Medical Council of CIC/MEDCI/A/2018/100466 Bimal Julka 31/05/2019 CHAND India SHISHIR Directorate of General CIC/DTGHS/A/2018/116711 Bimal Julka 31/05/2019 CHAND of Health Services Medical Council of CIC/MEDCI/A/2018/167682 Shishir Chand Bimal Julka 31/05/2019 India SHISHIR All India Institute of CIC/AIIMS/A/2018/115641 Bimal Julka 31/05/2019 CHAND Medical Sciences SHISHIR Divya Prakash CIC/CBRUI/A/2017/155073 CBI 29/04/2019 CHAND Sinha SHISHIR CIC/DEPOL/A/2017/153599 Delhi Police Sudhir Bhargava 24/04/2019 CHAND SHISHIR Central Board of CIC/CBSED/A/2017/155068 Manjula Prasher 28/11/2017 CHAND Secondary Education SHISHIR Medical Council of Yashovardhan CIC/YA/A/2016/001681 11/04/2017 CHAND India Azad Page 4 of 6 SHISHIR Medical Council of Yashovardhan CIC/YA/A/2016/000980 11/04/2017 CHAND India Azad In the light of the aforementioned facts discussed at length, it is noted that while information as defined under Section 2(f) of the RTI Act has been furnished by the Respondent, what the Appellant seeks to obtain is justification of the alleged addition, deletion, modification, correction made by Dr. Gurpreet Wander to the proceedings of the Appellant's case. Records of the case reveal that Respondent has tried to answer the queries of the Appellant, though the Appellant is not satisfied with the reply. Respondent - Ms. Juneja has sought time to revisit the queries and search if any possible information is available, with the newly constituted National Medical Commission. The Respondent is granted six weeks to trace if any further information, is available on record which can be provided to the Appellant in terms of the RTI Act.
PIO shall submit a compliance report before the Commission by 10.10.2021, with respect to the above directions upon sending the Appellant, additional information if any found by her from the official records.
Before concluding this decision, the Commission wishes to remark that considering the list of decisions already adjudicated by the Central Information Commission, with respect to the same subject matter, clearly the matter has been considered from all aspects by the Commission already. Substantial amount of information is available with the Appellant. Since the ambit of the RTI Act is restricted to ensure access to information from existing public records, the Commission finds that enough relief under the RTI Act has already been explored. The trial of the alleged medical negligence cannot be held through the RTI Act and hence the Central Registry of this Commission is hereby directed not to entertain any further cases from the Appellant on the same subject matter.
The appeal is disposed off with these observations.
Y. K. Sinha (वाई. के . िस हा) Chief Information Commissioner (मु य सूचना आयु ) Authenticated true copy (अिभ मािणत स ािपत ित) S. K. Chitkara (एस. के . िचटकारा) Dy. Registrar (उप-पंजीयक) 011-26186535 Page 5 of 6 Copy to:
Deputy Registrar (CR-I), Central Information Commission Page 6 of 6