NCDRC dismisses claim ‘medical negligence’ as cause of death of former CJI

The NCDRC was hearing the complaint filed by the wife and two daughters of the former CJI seeking “exemplary damage” and compensation of ₹10 crore by the treating doctors and medical institutions for their alleged negligence

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has dismissed a complaint filed by the family of former Chief Justice Of India J S Verma claiming damages from doctors and medical institutions for the alleged negligence during his treatment in 2013.

Justice Verma, the 27th CJI who served from March 25, 1997 until his retirement on January 18, 1998, died in April 2013 (Twitter Photo)

Justice Verma, the 27th CJI who served from March 25, 1997 until his retirement on January 18, 1998, died in April 2013 following illness.

The NCDRC was hearing the complaint filed by the wife and two daughters of the former CJI seeking “exemplary damage” and compensation of ₹10 crore by the treating doctors and medical institutions for their alleged negligence.

The family members intended to create a charitable trust in the name of Justice Verma, if they got successful in their claim at the NCDRC.

Saying that the former CJI suffered from multiple co-morbidities, including chronic liver dysfunction, and all these factors contributed to his death, a bench of presiding member S M Kantikar said standard medical protocols were followed by the doctors and there was “neither failure of duty of care nor any deficiency”.

The commission concluded that there was no medical negligence on the part of the Bhardwaj Hospital, Fortis Escorts Institute, and the Medanta Hospital or the doctors including Sanjiv Bharadwaj, VA Bharadwaj, Piyush Jain, Naresh Trehan, and Randhir Sud, who treated CJI Verma prior to his death.

The bench, also comprising judicial member Justice (Retd) Ram Surat Ram Maurya and technical member Inder Jit Singh, said an anticoagulant drug was prescribed to the patient to save him from a cerebral stroke.

“The death of Justice J S Verma was not attributable to the act of opposite parties. We have deep sympathies with the death of Justice Verma, but it cannot be ground for liability...The complaint fails, it is dismissed,” the bench said.

Underlining the ‘four Ds’ of medical negligence- duty, dereliction/deviation, direct (proximate) cause and damages- the commission said that in the present case, the complainants had failed to prove the dereliction of duty of care from the opposite parties and the same was not a “proximate cause of death”.

It also said the Delhi Medical Council (DMC) and the Medical Council of India (MCI) had considered all the aspects twice and found there was no negligence on the part of the treating doctors at any stage.

It also cited a 2021 judgment of the Supreme Court, according to which a medical practitioner is not to be held liable simply because things went wrong from mischance or misadventure or through an error of judgment in choosing one reasonable course of treatment in preference to another.

Before his demise, justice Verma headed a government-appointed committee to frame a tough law to tackle crime against women in the wake of the December 2012 Delhi gang-rape incident, often referred to as the ‘Nirbhaya’ case in which a young woman was raped and fatally assaulted in a moving bus.

The committee suggested amendments to criminal law for rapid trial and enhanced punishment for perpetrators of incidents of sexual assault on women.

Justice Verma was also awarded the NDTV Indian of the year award in 2013 by the Prime Minister.