In a significant ruling, the Odisha High Court has directed the State Government to pay compensation of Rs50,000 each to advocate Manoj Kumar Mohanty and his nephew Biswa Bijay Mohanty as they were mentally and physically tortured by a group of unruly medicos of the SCB Medical College Hospital here in the year 2000.
A single-judge Bench of the court comprising Justice BK Patel adjudicating a writ petition on Friday ordered the Government to pay the compensation amount to the petitioners within eight weeks of the pronouncement of the judgment. The order of the HC came as per the recommendation of the Justice PK Mishra Commission of Inquiry, which in 2002 had categorically observed that both Mohanty and his nephew were brutally tortured in a hostel of the medical college throughout the intervening night of July 16-17 of 2000.
The inquiry commission report, recommending to the Government to pay damage of Rs50,000 each to the uncle-nephew duo, was laid on the table of the State Assembly in July 2002. However, when the Government did not act upon the recommendation of the commission for more than 10 years, the victims approached the High Court through a writ petition.
The case inter alia pertains to the death of advocate Manoj Kumar Mohanty’s father on July 16, 2000 due to alleged negligence in treatment in the hospital. The lawyer had alleged that while his father was writhing in pain after a surgery in his cabin; the resident surgeons, instead of attending to him, were watching porno movies in their rest room.
When the shocking incident was brought to the notice of the hospital authorities, the irate medicos forcibly dragged Mohanty and his nephew to a nearby hostel and beat them mercilessly. The victims were also subjected to inhuman torture like burning them with cigarette butts and piercing their bodies with injection needles.
The incident had created uproar in the State during those days triggering a State-wide boycott of courts by lawyers. Sensing the gravity of the situation, the Government had instituted a commission of inquiry asking the then sitting judge of the High Court PK Mishra to probe and submit a report.