LUCKNOW: A Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court has imposed Rs 5,000 penalty each on three doctors in separate cases for their illegible handwriting In the three criminal cases that came up for hearing last week, the injury report of the victims issued by hospitals from Sitapur, Unnao and Gonda district hospitals were not readable because of poor handwriting of the doctors who had issued them.The bench considered it an obstruction in the court work and summoned the three doctors — Dr TP Jaiswal of Unnao, Dr PK Goel of Sitapur and Dr Ashish Saxena of Gonda. On their appearance, a bench of Justice Ajai Lamba and Justice Sanjay Harkauli admonished them and asked them to deposit Rs 5,000 penalty in the court’s library.The court further directed principal secretary home, principal secretary medical and health and director general medical health to ensure that in the future medico reports are prepared in easy language and readable writing. The court also suggested that such reports should be computer typed instead of being handwritten.“The medico legal report, if given clearly, can either endorse the incident as given by the eyewitnesses or can disprove the incident to a great extent. This is possible only if a detailed and clear medico legal report is furnished by the doctors, with complete responsibility,” the bench observed.It added, “The medical reports, however, are written in such shabby handwriting that they are not readable and decipherable by advocates or judges. It is to be considered that the medico legal reports and postmortem reports are prepared to assist the persons involved in dispensation of criminal justice. If such a report is readable by medical practitioners only, it shall not serve the purpose for which it is made.”The court reminded the doctors of a circular issued by UP director general medical and health in November 2012 which stipulated doctors to prepare the medico legal reports in readable form. The doctors pleaded they erred in writing legible prescriptions as they were overburdened.