In a first, court convicts quacks -Governance Now

In a first, court convicts quacks

District court in the national capital convicts five quacks for running private clinics

Sonal Matharu | April 1, 2010

For the first time ever, five quacks who were running private clinics in Sangam Vihar in south Delhi were convicted by a district court on Monday.

The quacks - Raja Ram, Raj Bala (female), G. Roy, S.K. Biswas and B.P. Verma – were booked under Section 27 of the Delhi Medical Act. They had to pay a fine of Rs.3,000 each apart from serving one day’s sentence.

Delhi Medical Council registrar Dr. Girish Tyagi said, “Though the sentence is just for a day, this is the first time any quack has been convicted.”

The complaints against these fake doctors were filed in 2006 with the DMC. The DMC then assigned the district medical officer to investigate the cases. The results showed that the doctors had no qualifications and were running the clinics illegally.

“We called those five individuals claiming to be doctors to our office and ordered closure on November 5, 2007,” said Dr. Tyagi.

The authorities later found out that the clinics are still being run by the quacks. The DMC then filed cases against these five individuals in the district court. The court’s judgment came two-and-a-half years later.

“Cases as old as eight to nine years are pending against quacks in various courts. We need fast track courts and stricter punishment for quacks but the judgment in these five cases is definitely a step forward,” added Dr. Tyagi.

Comments

Other News

Maharashtra adopts hybrid model for Census 2026 data collection

The government has initiated preparations for Census 2026 in Maharashtra, introducing a hybrid approach that combines optional self-enumeration with comprehensive door-to-door data collection to ensure complete coverage across the state. According to senior officials, the Self-

What the nine Indian Nobel winners have in common

A Touch Of Genius: The Wisdom of India’s Nobel Laureates Edited by Rudrangshu Mukherjee Aleph Books, Rs 1499, 848 pages

Income Tax dept holds Ghatkopar Outreach on new IT Act

The Income Tax Department organised an outreach programme in Ghatkopar, Mumbai, to raise awareness about the key features of the Income Tax Act, 2025, effective April 1, 2026. The initiative is part of a nationwide effort to promote taxpayer awareness, simplify compliance, and strengthen a transparent, eff

Making AI work where governance is closest to people

India’s next governance leap may not solely come from digitisation. It will come from making public systems more intelligent, more adaptive, and more responsive to the dynamics at the grassroots. That opportunity is especially significant at the panchayat level, where governance is not an abstract po

Borrowing troubles: How small loans are quietly trapping youth

A silent crisis is playing out in the pocket of young India, not in stock markets or government treasuries, but in smartphones of college students and first-jobbers who clicked on the Apply Now button without reading the small print. A decade ago, to take a loan, you had to do some paperwor