MUMBAI, Oct. 13 -- The Bombay High Court has discharged the managing trustee of PD Hinduja Hospital and Medical Research Centre, AP Hinduja, from criminal proceedings initiated in 1992, after a patient who underwent cataract surgery at the hospital lost vision in the operated eye, allegedly due to use of sub-standard ophthalmic drugs. "Simply because a person is a trustee and termed or called as managing trustee of a trust, he cannot and does not become liable for each and every act by an employee in a pharmacy," a single judge bench of justice Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale said while striking down the case against Hinduja. Apart from mentioning that Hinduja was the managing trustee, there was nothing else in the entire proceeding against him, the judge said. The proceeding was initiated by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) following a complaint lodged by the patient's son, Dr Sunil Patil, in June 1992, alleging that use of an ophthalmic drug, Visilon, during the cataract surgery of his father, Umakant Patil, caused a fungal infection in the operated eye, resulting in blindness. In a preliminary inquiry, FDA claimed to have found that the drug used at the hospital was "not of a standard quality" and showed microbial growth when tested for sterility. Accordingly, criminal proceedings were launched before the magistrate court for contravention of multiple sections of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, against drugs manufacturers, dealers/ distributors, pharmacists, the hospital and its managing trustee. Hinduja approached the high court after the metropolitan magistrate court at Mazgaon rejected his discharge plea September 3, 2015 and the sessions court upheld the order on December 2, 2017. His counsel pointed out that he was roped in as an accused in the case only based on information furnished by the hospital to certain queries raised by the FDA....