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Certificate from government doctors — is it mandatory?

Revised procedures of IT Department prescribe that certificate is to be obtained from a Government hospital, where the treatment is to be taken. But even before the insertion of this rule, patients have been getting treatment from private hospitals under the care of private specialists and they have to continue the treatment for ever especially in the case of chronic renal failure and the like.

What is the way out for these patients to claim 80DDB exemption, since they cannot go to a government hospital to obtain a certificate from a doctor who is not actually treating the patient. In such case, the Department has allowed exemption under Sec. 80DDB in the earlier Form till 2003, but is now denying the same quoting new procedural rules.

The question wrongly assumes that the certificate from the government doctor is to the effect that he has been treating the patient. All that he has to certify is the fact of such illness as specified by the law and the rules. The verification that is required in the certificate is of the government doctor to the effect that the patient was suffering from the specified disease during the relevant previous year, "after considering the entire history of illness, a careful examination and appropriate investigation". It has to be countersigned by the head of the government hospital by way of verification that the signatory is a specialist with degree in general or internal medicine as prescribed under Form 10-I.

It is true that the government considers such certificate from government doctors to be more reliable than from private doctors apparently, because a government doctor is accountable to the government as a government servant, though a private doctor would also be accountable, if he gives a false certificate.

The certification procedure has put enormous strain on the taxpayers claiming relief under Sec. 80DDB for illness and 80DD and 80U, for disability, who have similarly to file a certificate in Form 10-IA. For certain disabilities, it is also necessary to have further certification, whether such disability would be progressive or non-progressive. The period after which reassessment of disability will be required to be made has also to be indicated in such certificate.

Here again, it is a certification of the specialist in government institution or hospital. For deduction under Sec. 80DD and 80U, there is the alternative of furnishing the form prescribed under Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation) Act, 1995.

S. Rajaratnam

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