Doctors-patient relationship - "Right and legal right" - Duty to maintain secrecy - Hippocratic Oath is not enforceable in a Court of Law - Patient intending marry.
Code of Professional Conduct made by the Medical Council of India. The Code of Medical Ethics contain an exception to the general rule of confidentially, in as much as it provides that the information may be disclosed in a Court of law under the orders of the Presidency judge. Code of Medical Ethics also carves out an exception to the rule of confidentiality and permits the disclosure in circumstances , which public interest would override the duty of confidentiality , where there is an immediate or future health risk to others. Doctor-patient relationship, though basically commercial, is, professionally, a matter of confidence and therefore , Doctors ar emorally and ethically bound to maintain confidentiality. Right of privacy which may sometimes lead to clash of one persons' " right to be let alone" with another persons right to be informed. [ Mr.X vs. Hospital Z. AIR 1999 SC 495 = (199)1 CompLJ 23 = (1998) 8 SCC 296.. S.Sagir Ahmad and B.N.Kirpal {JJ} ]