HC rejects hospital’s plea to recover ₹1.3 crore from doctor who quit with 7 days’ notice

The court said damages under Section 73 of the Contract Act require proof of actual loss, not estimates of remote or probable harm.

The Bombay High Court on Monday rejected Wockhardt Hospitals Ltd’s plea for recovery of ₹1.30 crore from a specialist doctor who had resigned from the company’s Rajkot hospital with seven days’ notice instead of the stipulated three months, allegedly causing massive losses.

The dispute arose from Dr Nishit Vyas’s resignation from Wockhardt Hospitals’ Rajkot unit in September 2016. (HT Photo)

A division bench of justices GS Kulkarni and Dr Neela Gokhale clarified that damages contemplated under section 73 of the Indian Contract Act could be awarded only for losses actually suffered and not for any remote or probable damage.

“The loss must be a real loss or actual damage and not merely a probable or possible one,” the bench said.

Doctor resigned before completing notice period

According to the hospital’s plea, Dr Nishit Vyas was appointed Senior Consultant, Internal Medicines and Critical Care, at the Rajkot unit of Wockhardt Hospitals in August 2015, for a period of two years. But the doctor resigned on September 23, 2016, and stopped reporting for work from September 30, 2016.

The dismissal prompted the company to approach the high court again, where its lawyer pointed out that due to the doctor’s breach of contract, the hospital was unable to provide a special consultant to patients. The loss incurred due to this was based on a reasonable estimate and no exact figure could be furnished, the lawyer said.

Court finds no evidence of actual financial loss

The judges, however, refused to accept the contentions and upheld the order passed by the city civil court. They said that the basic obligation of Wockhardt Hospitals was to establish that they actually had suffered losses.

“We do not find that there is any material on record, either in the evidence or in the plaint, demonstrating how such losses were incurred,” the division bench said and dismissed the plea.