In cases of medical negligence 'mens rea' is almost always absent;then how it's criminal sometimes?(India)

Answer 1

O.K. Dear you must go through this landmark judgment of the Supreme Court of India in Jacob Mathew V/S State of Punjab Criminal Appeal no.144-145 of 2004 to understand that the essential ingredient of
mens rea cannot be excluded from consideration when the charge in a
criminal court consists of criminal negligence. The Supreme Court has held the factor of grossness or degree does assume
significance while drawing distinction in negligence actionable in tort/civil wrong
and negligence punishable as a crime. To be latter, the negligence has
to be gross or of a very high degree. In civil proceedings, a mere preponderance of
probability is sufficient, and the defendant is not necessarily entitled to
the benefit of every reasonable doubt; but in criminal proceedings, the
persuasion of guilt must amount to such a moral certainty as
convinces the mind of the Court, as a reasonable man, beyond all
reasonable doubt. Where negligence is an essential ingredient of the
offence, the negligence to be established by the prosecution must be
culpable or gross and not the negligence merely based upon an error
of judgment.
Since to be the criminal negligence it requires very high degree of negligence the ingredients of mens rea can not be ruled out that has to be proved by sufficient evidence to prove the criminal negligence. While civil negligence is an omission to do something which a
reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which ordinarily
regulate the conduct of human affairs, would do, or doing something
which a prudent and reasonable man would not do; criminal
negligence is the gross and culpable neglect or failure to exercise that
reasonable and proper care and precaution to guard against injury
either to the public generally or to an individual in particular, which
having regard to all the circumstances out of which the charge has
arisen, it was the imperative duty of the accused person to have
adopted. Based on these principles the criminal negligence can be tried & punished in India.

Answer 2

I am not sure I understand your question but will try to answer it. "Mens rea" means a state of mind required to commit a crime. For instance, to convict you of 1st degree murder, the state would have to prove you wanted or desired to kill someone, and the "mens rea" or mental state they would have to prove you had during the murder was the desire to kill the person (as opposed to doing it accidentally, etc.)
Sometimes someone who is a dr. does an act which is both malpractice and a crime. For instance we had a local dr. who prescribed so much narcotic medicine for his patient that she died. The courts found that to be manslaughter (causing a death of a person by being utterly oblivious or paying so little attention to one's duty of care as to be reckless and to act in such a way that the death of the person would be forseeable). That would constitute a crime for which the dr. could go to jail and could be the basis for a suit by the dead patients' family to sue the dr for malpractice. Hope that helps.

Answer 3

Criminal Record Search Database : http://InfoSearchDetective.com/Help

Answer 4

It s criminal negligence when-
Dr. has knowledge or has foreseen that by such negligence there s possibility of death of the patient.