TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1998 (9) TMI 650
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....D Course. In September, 1991 the appellant joined the further Course of Diploma in Opthamalogy which completed in April, 1993, In August, 1993 he resumed his duties in the Nagaland State Health Service as Assistant Surgeon Grade-I. One Itokhu Yepthomi who was ailing from a disease which was provisionally diagnosed as Aortic Anuerisrn was advised to go to the 'Z' Hospital at Madras and the appellant was directed by the Government of Nagaland to accompany the said patient to Madras for treatment. For the treatment of the above disease, Itokhu Yepthomi was posted for surgery on May 31, 1995 which, however, was cancelled due to shortage of blood. On June 1, 1995 the appellant and one Yehozhe who was the driver of Itokhu Yepthomi were asked to donate blood for the latter. Their blood samples Were taken and the result showed that the appellant's blood group was A(+ve). On the next date, namely, on June 2, 1995, Itokhu Yepthomi was operated for Aortic Anuerism and remained in the Hospital till 10th June, 1995 when he was discharged. In August, 1995 the appellant proposed marriage to one Ms, 'Y' which was accepted and the marriage was proposed to be he....
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....will keep this path and this stipulation - to reckon him who taught me this art equally dear to me as my parents, to Share my substance with and relieve his necessities if required, to look upon his offspring in the same footing as my own brothers and to teach them this art if they shall wish to learn it without fee or stipulation and that by precept, lecture, and every other mode of instruction I will impart a knowledge of the art to my own sons and those of my teachers and to disciples bound by a stipulation and oath according to the law of medicine but to none others. 1 will follow that system of regimen which, according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from whatever is deleterious and mischievous. I will give no deadly medicine to any one if asked nor suggest any such counsel, and in like manner I will not give to a woman a pessary to produce abortion. With purity and with holiness I will pass my life and practice my art, I will not cut persons laboring under the stone but will leave this to be done by men who are practitioners of this work, Into whatever houses I enter, I will go into them for the benefit of the sick and will a....
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.... xxx xxx xxx (m) the standards of professional conduct and etiquette and code of ethics to be observed by medical practitioners," It is under these provisions that the Code of Medical Ethics has been made by the Indian Medical Council which, inter alia, provides as under : "Do not disclose the secrets of a patient that have been learnt in the exercise of your profession. Those may be disclosed only in a Court of Law under orders of the presiding judge," It is true that in the doctor-patient relationship, the most important aspect is the doctor's duty of maintaining secrecy. A doctor cannot disclose to a person any information regarding his patient which he has gathered in the course of treatment nor can the doctor disclose to anyone else the mode of treatment or the advice given by him to the patient. I....
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....ces in which the public interest would override the duty of confidentiality could, for example, be the investigation and prosecution of serious crime or where there is an immediate or future (but not a past and remote) health risk to others. The General Medical Council of Great Britain in its guidance on HIV infection and AIDS has provided as under : "When diagnosis has been made by a specialist and the patient after appropriate counselling, still refuses permission for the General Practitioner to be informed of the result, that request for privacy should be respected. The only exception would be when failure to disclose would put the health of the health- care team at serious risk. All people receiving such information much consider themselves to be under the same obligations of confidentiality as the doctor principally responsible for the patient's care. Occasionally the doctor may wish to disclose a diagnosis to a third party other than a health-care professional. The Council think that the only grounds for this are when there is a serious and identifiable, risk to a specific person. who, if not s....
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....tion upon the right of privacy. Assuming that the fundamental rights explicitly guaranteed to a citizen have penumbral zones and that the right to privacy is itself a fundamental right, that fundamental right must be subject to restriction on the basis of compelling public interest." Kharak Singh v. State of Punjab and Gobind v, State of Madhya Pradesh (supra) came to be considered again by this Court in Malak Singh & Ors v. State of Punjab & Ors., [1981] 1 SCC 420 and the view taken earlier on the right of privacy was reiterated. In another classic judgment rendered by Jeevan Reddy, J., in R. Rajagopal @ RR Gopal & Anr. v. State of Tamil Nadu & Ors., [1994] 6 SCC 632, the right of privacy vis-a-vis the tight of the Press under Article 19 of the Constitution were considered and in the research-oriented judgment, it Was laid down, inter alia, as under : "The right to privacy is implicit in the right to life and liberty guaranteed to the citizens of this country by Article 21. It is a "right to be let alone:" A citizen has a right to safeguard the privacy of his own, his fa....
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....ssionally, a matter of confidence: and, there-fore, Doctors are morally and ethically bound to maintain confidentiality. In such a situation, public disclosure of even true private facts may amount to an invasion of the Right of Privacy which may sometimes lead to the clash of one person's "right to be let alone" with another person's right to be informed. Disclosure of even true private facts has the tenancy to disturb a person's tranquility. It may generate many complexes in him and may even lead to psychological problems. He may, thereafter, have a disturbed life all through. In the face of these potentialities and as already held by this Court in its various decisions referred to above, the Right of Privacy is an essential component of right to life envisaged by Article .21, The 'right, however, is not absolute and may be lawfully restricted for the prevention of crime, disorder or protection of health or morals or protection of rights and freedom of others. Having regard to the fact that the appellant was found to be HIV(+); its disclosure would not be violative of either the rule of confidentiality or the appellant's Right of Privacy as Ms. 'Y....
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....us adultery, bigamy with adultery or of rape, sodomy or bestiality, Under Section 27 of the Special Marriage Act, the party to a marriage has been given the right to obtain divorce if the other party to whom he or she was married was suffering front venereal disease in a communicable form. The emphasis, therefore, in practically all systems of marriage is on a healthy body with moral ethics. Once the law provides the "venereal disease" as a ground for divorce to either husband or wife, such a person who was suffering from that disease, even prior to the marriage cannot be said to have any right to marry so long as he is not fully cured of the disease. If the disease, with which he was suffering, would constitute a valid ground for divorce, was concealed by him and he entered into marital ties with a woman who did not know that the person with whom she was being married was suffering from a virulent venereal disease, that person must be injuncted from entering into marital ties so as to prevent him from spoiling the health and, consequently, the life of an innocent woman. The contention of the learned counsel that every young man or, for that matter, a wom....
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.... would be guilty of an offence, punishable with imprisonment for the term indicated therein. Therefore, if a person suffering from the dreadful disease "AIDS", knowingly marries a woman and thereby transmits infection to that woman, he would be guilty of offences indicated in Sections 269 and 270 of the Indian Penal Code. The above statutory provisions thus impose a duty upon the appellant not to marry as the marriage would have the effect of spreading the infection of his own disease, which obviously is dangerous to life, to the woman whom he marries apart from being an offence. Can the appellant, in the face of these statutory provisions, contend that the respondents, in this situation, should have maintained strict secrecy. We are afraid, respondent's silence would have made them participient criminis. Ms. 'Y', with whom the marriage of the appellant was settled, was saved in time by the disclosure of the vital information that the appellant was HIV(+). The disease which is communicable would have been positively communicated to her immediately on the consummation of marriage. As a human being, Ms. 'Y' must also enjoy, as she, obviously, is ....