New Delhi, Sep 10 The Supreme Court has set aside an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) that had held a doctor of a private hospital liable for medical negligence in the death of a woman and her newborn during delivery.
A Bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Satish Chandra Sharma ruled that the NCDRC had “overstepped” its powers and jurisdiction by attributing negligence in antenatal care and management, when the complainant’s case was confined to alleged lapses in post-delivery care.
“The NCDRC clearly erred in building up a new case on his (complainant’s) behalf and in pinning negligence and liability upon Dr Kanwarjit Kochhar in the context of antenatal care and management of the patient, which was never the subject matter of the complaint case,” observed the Justice Kumar-led Bench.
The case arose from the 2005 death of Charanpreet Kaur, a co-operative bank manager on deputation as a lecturer in the Punjab Institute of Cooperative Training, and her newborn following delivery at Deep Nursing Home, Chandigarh.
The State Consumer Commission (SCDRC) held Dr Kochhar as well as the hospital negligent in post-delivery care and directed payment of Rs 20.26 lakh in compensation to the complainant, along with litigation costs of Rs 10,000.
On appeal, the NCDRC in 2015 modified the SCDRC ruling, exonerating the hospital but holding Dr Kochhar personally negligent for failing to provide proper antenatal supervision.
Setting aside the NCDRC’s ruling against Dr Kochhar, the apex court also granted relief on expert medical board reports that found no deficiency in treatment.
“The opinions expressed by the doctors and experts, who constituted these Medical Boards/Committees, clearly tilted the balance in favour of Dr Kanwarjit Kochhar, as none of them found any medical negligence on her part. [T]hese bodies were constituted at the behest of Manmeet Singh Mattewal (complainant) himself, and he cannot, therefore, fight shy of the conclusions and findings rendered by them,” it said.
The Supreme Court reiterated the principle laid down in the Jacob Mathew vs. State of Punjab case that every failure in the treatment of a patient does not automatically lead to an assumption of medical negligence.
“Simply because a patient did not favourably respond to the treatment given by a physician or if a surgery failed, the doctor cannot be held liable per se by applying the doctrine of res ipsa loquitur,” the Justice Kumar-led Bench said.
Ultimately, the top court set aside the NCDRC’s order and directed the complainant to refund the sum of Rs 10 lakh that had been received pursuant to earlier orders in the case.
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