Seven months after the state government reiterated in court that it had indeed dispatched the relevant circular to hospitals and related health facilities in the state, Raghunath Raheja, who had first moved court after his wife's death due to alleged medical negligence in 1991, found that 10 major city hospitals were yet to be officially intimated.

Having never really got over his wife's death at Nanavati Hospital where she underwent coronary bypass surgery, Raheja coopted Express Newsline intohis own crusade to make sure there were no loopholes working against persons in his predicament. ``I felt cheated at every step and therefore I decided to fight,'' Raheja says.

The ruling which enabled the release of these all-important documents -- which could either dispel or confirm doubts over potential medical negligence -- had been passed in 1996 on a writ petition filed by Raheja, whose wife's medical case papers he had sought from Nanavati Hospital. The court had then directed the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), with which all government and private hospitals and clinics in the state are bound to register, to apprise them of the court's verdict.

However, in 1998, Raheja found that about 60 per cent of the hospitals in the state were yet to receive any intimation though most of them said they were aware of the judgement through newspaper reports. Raheja then filed a petition alleging contempt of court by the MMC, in April 1998. Accepting the MMC's plea that it lacked the requisite funds to issuethe circular, the court therefore directed the state government to undertake the task.

In December 1998, the then deputy secretary with the Department of Medical Education and Drugs, L G Kumre, had filed an affidavit in court, stating that the government had issued circulars to the deputy director in charge of health services, all district civil surgeons and all government hospitals and medical facilities. The affidavit also stated that the department had issued a press note to all newspapers in August 1998.

However, in August 1999, the petitioner found that though awareness of the court's judgement had increased, most hospitals had yet to be officially intimated.

G M Phoplankar, deputy secretary, Department of Medical Education and Drugs, however, told Express Newline that the government had dispatched the circluar in three phases -- on March 31, April 29 and May 27, 1999 -- to the Directorate of Medical Education, Ayurvedic Hospitals, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, all civil surgeons,Zilla Parishads, District Health Offices etc. ``I do not know why they have not received it. They must have just thrown it away,'' he says.

Hospitals, though, tell a different story. Though the assistant dean of the government-run JJ Hospital Dr S B Modi says they had received the official intimation, others like the civic-run King Edward Memorial Hospital say they had in fact obtained a copy from the State Secretariat themselves.

Last year, the Dadar District Consumer Redressal Forum directed the private, trust-run Lilavati Hospital to pay Rs 5,000 as compensation to a patient whose medical papers they had refused to release.

At Peddar Road's Jaslok Hospital, Assistant Medical Superintendent Dr J P Sharma, told Express Newsline that the government is more likely to send such information to government hospitals only. ``Since they have their own limitations we keep track of such things ourselves and act accordingly,'' he remarked.

The authorities at Poddar, Nair, GT, Harkishondas, Bhatia,Hinduja hospitals said that none of them had received intimation of the court verdict but having read about it in the newspapers they have been releasing patients' case papers.

Still, Raheja is far from satisfied. He says: ``If the government has been prompt in informing hospitals about other matters like the abolition of the Coroner's Courts, why should they be slack about this? My aim is to see that the ordinary citizen knows he has the right to demand medical papers. Even if that requires further litigation.''