The Supreme Court (SC) has directed a refund of ₹10 lakh to a doctor and others, who were penalised by a consumer panel, in an alleged case of medical negligence filed by a Chandigarh resident in 2006.
The SC division bench of justice Sanjay Kumar and justice Satish Chandra Sharma overturned a 2012 judgment of National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), Delhi, observing that the commission transgressed its jurisdiction in building a “new case for the complainants, contrary to their pleadings”.
“The impugned was order passed by the NCDRC, confirming the State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC)’s judgment on the new grounds made out by it, therefore, cannot be sustained,” it said ordering the refund.
Complainant’s wife, newborn died during delivery
The case dates to 2006 when a Chandigarh resident, Manmeet Singh Mattewal, lost his wife, Charanpreet Kaur, and his newborn son within the span of a few hours. He filed a complaint of medical negligence and deficiency in service before SCDRC, Chandigarh, against the doctor, Kanwarjit Kochhar, who conducted the delivery at the now defunct Deep Nursing Home. In 2007, SCDRC found the doctor and the nursing home medically negligent on grounds that they did not exercise due care and caution in treating the woman but held that there was no fault on their part so far as the death of the newborn was concerned. The SCDRC directed them to pay ₹20 lakh to Mattewal and his son Shiraz.
The matter went to NCDRC, which after hearing the arguments, reserved it for final judgment in 2010. But the final order came in 2012, concluding that no liability would attach to the nursing home and pinned the entire responsibility paying ₹20 lakh on the doctor. It was against this order that the nursing home and the doctor had gone to apex court in 2012. In 2016, based on the court order, the doctor paid ₹4 lakh more to the complainants. She had paid ₹6 lakh after the 2007 judgment.
{{/usCountry}}The matter went to NCDRC, which after hearing the arguments, reserved it for final judgment in 2010. But the final order came in 2012, concluding that no liability would attach to the nursing home and pinned the entire responsibility paying ₹20 lakh on the doctor. It was against this order that the nursing home and the doctor had gone to apex court in 2012. In 2016, based on the court order, the doctor paid ₹4 lakh more to the complainants. She had paid ₹6 lakh after the 2007 judgment.
{{/usCountry}}‘5 panels set up to look into plaint’
While deciding the case now after 13 years, the Supreme Court said that doctors and experts, who constituted medical boards/committees to look into the allegations of medical negligence, did not find any medical negligence on doctor’s part. These bodies were constituted at the behest of Mattewal himself and he cannot, therefore, fight shy of the conclusions and findings rendered by them, the court observed while taking note that as many as five medical boards/ committees of experts were set up to look into the complaint.
The court observed that Dr Kochhar was held responsible on the ground of medical negligence in the antenatal care and management by the NCDRC. “..This was never the case of Mattewal. The entire focus of the NCDRC, however, was only upon the antenatal care and management of the patient and its pinpointed findings were also in relation to the said period and treatment only,” it said, adding that the NCDRC erred in building up a new case on his behalf and in pinning negligence and liability upon Dr Kochhar in the context of antenatal care and management of the patient, which was never the subject matter of the complaint case.
Now, the court has directed Mattewal to return ₹10 lakh to the doctor and Dr GS Kocchar, who represented the nursing home and the insurance company.