Never had any intention to lower dignity of SC: IMA chief tenders apology

Indian Medical Association chief Dr R V Asokan on Thursday issued a public apology for his remarks in an interview regarding an observation made by the Supreme Court during the hearing of a case to which the IMA was a party, saying he regrets his statement and it was never his intention to lower the court's dignity. "The IMA National President Dr R V Asokan has released an apology regretting his statement to the press regarding a comment by the Supreme Court while IMA was party to the case," the statement issued by the doctors' association said.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) was equally concerned about the issues of malpractice, Dr Asokan said in the statement referring to the April 23 order in which the apex court during the hearing of a matter related to Patanjali Ayurved Ltd's misleading advertisements case had observed that it was of the opinion that IMA also needs to put its house in order.

In an affidavit filed in the top court, Dr Asokan had also tendered an unconditional apology for his statement against the Supreme Court.

"IMA has filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court against misleading advertisements and malicious campaigns by some persons and entities against modern medicine professionals. With reference to certain statements made by me during an interview with PTI News, I have expressed regret to the Supreme Court and have also submitted my affidavit to the court for tendering my unconditional apology," Dr Asokan said. "I never had any intention to lower the majesty or dignity of the Supreme Court," he added in his apology.

"There are several complaints relating to the alleged unethical acts on the part of the members of the Association who are abusing the trust reposed in them by patients and not only prescribing prohibitively expensive medicines, but also recommending avoidable/unnecessary investigations as a part of the line of treatment, for purely extraneous considerations," the bench had said.

Constant updating and dissemination of ethical practices was one of the main activities of the IMA, Dr Asokan said.

Recently, the IMA engaged patient groups in a dialogue for addressing the concerns of patients and a joint declaration was released in Bangalore, the statement said.