In a landmark observation, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has ruled that a “legible medical prescription is a fundamental right”, underscoring that unclear handwriting by doctors can be a matter of life and death.
The observation came from Justice Jasgurpreet Singh Puri, who was hearing a case involving charges of rape, cheating, and forgery. While examining the medico-legal report written by a government doctor, Justice Puri found it completely unreadable.
“It shook the conscience of this court as not even a word or a letter was legible,” he wrote in his order, adding that it was “shocking that government doctors are still writing prescriptions by hand which cannot be read by anybody except perhaps some chemists,” BBC reported.
The court has now directed the government to introduce handwriting lessons in medical education and implement digitised prescriptions within two years. Until then, all doctors must write prescriptions in clear, capital letters to avoid errors.
The case has reignited public debate about doctors’ notoriously poor handwriting, a long-running joke in India and abroad. But medical experts say the issue is no laughing matter. Illegible prescriptions can lead to misdiagnosis, wrong medication, and even fatalities.
According to a report by BBC, Dr Dilip Bhanushali, president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which represents over 3.3 lakh doctors, told the BBC that while most urban doctors now use digital prescriptions, the problem persists in rural and small-town clinics.
“It’s true that many doctors have poor handwriting, but overcrowded hospitals and heavy workloads make it difficult to write neatly,” he said. “We have advised members to follow the court’s directions and write in bold, legible letters,” as quoted by BBC.
This isn’t the first time Indian courts have criticised sloppy handwriting in the medical field. The Odisha High Court and the Allahabad High Court have previously flagged “zigzag” or “shabby” prescriptions that were indecipherable.
BBC reported that the dangers of unreadable prescriptions are well-documented globally. A 1999 Institute of Medicine (IoM) report estimated that medical errors caused at least 44,000 preventable deaths annually in the U.S., with 7,000 linked to bad handwriting. In the U.K., health authorities have admitted that drug errors “caused appalling levels of harm,” and that electronic prescribing could reduce mistakes by half.
India, however, lacks official data on the consequences of illegible prescriptions. Yet, cases abound, from patients taking the wrong drugs due to misread names to tragic incidents like the death of a three-year-old in Noida in 2014 after receiving an incorrect injection.
Following such incidents, pharmacist Chilukuri Paramathama from Telangana filed a public interest petition seeking a ban on handwritten prescriptions. His campaign led to the Medical Council of India’s 2016 directive, mandating that all doctors write generic drug names “legibly and preferably in capital letters.”
Despite that, nearly a decade later, pharmacists say they still receive unreadable prescriptions. Ravindra Khandelwal, CEO of Dhanwantary Pharmacy in Kolkata, said: “We sometimes have to call doctors for clarification because it’s critical that we dispense the right medicine,” as reported by BBC.
As the court pushes for digitisation and clarity, the ruling serves as a reminder that a few illegible words on paper can have life-or-death consequences, and that in the digital age, handwriting still matters, especially when it comes from a doctor’s pen.