Judicial medical officer (JMO) Dr. Ruhul Haq, who recently sparked controversy for having continued to hold office despite a suspension imposed by the Sri Lanka Medical Council (SLMC), has filed a fundamental rights (FR) petition before the Supreme Court (SC), seeking the restoration of his SLMC registration and quashing the appointment made to the Colombo Chief JMO post as the latter had allegedly been made without considering his application for the post.
In the petition bearing number SC/FR 18/2024, he has named several parties including the SLMC as respondents.
Dr. Haq has requested the SC to declare that his FR guaranteed under the relevant provisions of the Constitution have been/are being, and/or are likely to be infringed by the actions of the relevant respondents and/or the State, and to direct the relevant respondents and/or the State to reinstate his SLMC registration if it has been suspended by the SLMC, in his due post at the Ministry of Health as a consultant JMO, in his due place in the merit order for the placement of the end post of specialist medical officers (MOs) for this year (2024), consider his application for the placement of the end post transfer of specialist MOs – 2024, declare that any appointment made to the post of the Chief JMO of the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology without considering his application as null and void and of no force, effect or avail in law, award him a compensation sum of Rs. 5 million and grant costs.
Dr. Haq had continued to function as a JMO, and conduct postmortem examinations despite him having been suspended from exercising his rights, privileges, and immunities conferred upon him by registration as a medical practitioner, for eight months starting from 20 December 2022, by the Professional Conduct Committee of the SLMC. The relevant suspension was later extended indefinitely. Allegations of preparing postmortem reports with contradictory findings with regard to the deaths of businessman Dinesh Schaffter and the child named Hamdi Faslin who died on 28 July of last year (2023) at the Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children due to an infection following a kidney surgery, have been levelled against him.
In January 2024, he had requested the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) to intervene to prevent what he claimed was a violation of his seniority and merit order in appointing the Colombo Chief JMO. In a letter to the HRCSL, he said that he had applied for the post of the Colombo Chief JMO in 2024.
“The senior-most person, Dr. P.R. Ruwanpura has withdrawn his application. So, I am eligible to the Chief JMO position based on the merit order. It is a 'one and only' chance in life. If a junior person gets the position, it would affect my retirement. In the list of candidates, I am at the top with 83.18 marks and the applicant below me has 71.21 marks,”the letter read.
He had also claimed that there is no official document to indicate his suspension by the SLMC after the initial suspension which ended on 20 August 2023. “I should be reinstated or the suspension should be extended as per the legal authority vested in the SLMC. I have written to the SLMC to reinstate my registration. Unfortunately, the SLMC has failed to respond to my letter. I am very disappointed to hear through the SLMC's Registrar (Dr. Hemantha Herath) that after my formal request for reinstatement, they have brought a rule of no automatic reinstatement.”