Loss caused to State exchequer to be recovered from negligent public servants: Madras High Court

When a government official or a public servant is guilty of negligence or dereliction of duty and such act results in payment of statutory compensation or relief to victim parties, the monetary loss caused to the State exchequer must be recovered from the erring officer, the Madras High Court has held. [The Dean v. Vijaykumari]. .In a judgment passed on Friday, Justice SM Subramaniam of the Madras High Court said,"In such circumstances, when the Public Officials have committed an act of negligence, lapses or dereliction of duty, the financial loss caused to the State Exchequer are to be recovered from such Public Servants, who all are responsible and accountable for the financial losses.".The Court was hearing a civil revision petition filed by a government hospital in Thiruvarur district in Tamil Nadu. Some doctors at the hospital had mishandled a surgery and such error had led to the victim losing complete vision in both eyes. The victim had filed a suit and sought compensation, and in the year 2016, a local court had ordered the hospital to pay the victim a compensation amount of ₹5 lakh.At the time, the hospital did not file any appeal and the order became final. However, it did not pay the compensation amount. In September 2022, the lower court issued an order for attachment of the hospital's moveable properties in lieu of the compensation amount that it failed to pay to the victim.The hospital then approached the High Court challenging the 2022 order. .Justice Subramaniam, however, said that the hospital had clearly committed an act of negligence that had resulted in the victim losing her sight completely. It was thus bound to pay the compensation amount, considering that it had chosen not to file any appeal to the lower court order within the statutory time limit. The hospital argued that since it was a government-run institution, attachment of its property will cause losses to the State exchequer and lead to public inconvenience. The Court said that the State government must recover such loss to the exchequer from the erring doctors in the present case. .It further said that the victim could not be made to run from pillar to post for securing the compensation amount that had been awarded to her over six years ago."If at all the revision petitioners (hospital authorities) are of the opinion that they have got a better case, they should have initiated appropriate steps within a reasonable period of time. Now after a lapse of about six years from the date of decree, if a lenient view is taken by this Court, then the same will result in an injustice to the medical victim, who lost both her eyes and became blind totally on account of the surgery conducted in the Government Medical College Hospital at Thiruvarur," the Court said. However, agreeing that countless members of public relied on the hospital for health services, the Court said it will keep the 2022 attachment order of the lower court in "abeyance" till January 10, 2023. It directed the hospital to deposit the compensation amount of ₹5 lakh with the execution court by such date and said that the execution court should disburse the amount to the victim by January 30, 2023. Special Government Pleader A Edwin Prabhakar appeared for the hospital.The respondent victim remained unrepresented..[Read judgment]