Supreme Court restores dismissal of Army doctor for touching women patients inappropriately

Thirty six years after a doctor in Indian Army misbehaved with two women patients, the Supreme Court has restored the order dismissing him from the service, saying his reprehensible conduct of abusing a position of trust is not condonable.

A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao, Hemant Gupta and S Ravindra Bhat set aside the Armed Forces Tribunal's order which has confirmed the conviction of Lt Col S S Bedi by the General Court Martial but reduced his sentence from cashiering from service into a fine of Rs 50,000.

The apex court passed its judgement on cross appeals filed by the Union government as well as by Bedi.

During the hearing, his counsel Sridhar Potaraju, contended physical examination of the two complainants was necessary due to their ailments as one suffered from bronchial asthma and another with duodenal ulcer. He also said Bedi was 78-year-old and had deposited the fine.

Additional Solicitor General Vikramjit Banerjee, however, said conversion of sentence was unwarranted as there was no necessity for him to touch private parts of the complainants.

Going through the evidence, the court said it was in agreement with the General Court Martial that Bedi was guilty of using criminal force against two women patients.

The bench, however, directed the authorities to consider the entire record of service and advanced age of the appellants while taking a decision to initiate proceedings under the Army Pension Regulations.

After being commissioned into India Army Medical Corps in 1966, Bedi was posted at Base Hospital, Lucknow. A complaint was made by two women on May 15, 1986 that during check up, he misbehaved with them, touching their private parts inappropriately.

He was held guilty by the General Court Martial on December 9, 1986. He was sentenced to cashiering on January 14, 1987.

He moved the Delhi High Court, which transferred the matter to the Armed Forces Tribunal.