A Supreme Court Judges Bench comprising D. Y. Chandrachud, A. S Bopanna, and J B Pardiwala while giving their judgment on an appeal for justice passed by the National Consumer Disputes Tribunal ruled that every death taking place in a hospital should not be considered due to negligence of doctors as well owing to the apathy of medical department.
This case was sent to the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission which while considering the material which was produced before the top court in support of the Bench, National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission after considering the evidentiary material which was produced in support of the complaint which alleged medical negligence as the reason for the death while dismissing the complaint by its impugned order, clarified that it has not found any act of medical negligence in the death case.
Top Court judges’ Bench ruled that unless the appellants were able to establish before this Court any specific course of conduct that suggested a lack of due medical attention and lack of care being a reason for the death, it would not be possible for the court to second-guess the medical judgment of the doctors on the line of medical treatment which was administered to the spouse of the first appellant.
The bench stated that “Every death in an institutionalized environment of a hospital does not necessarily amount to medical negligence merely on a hypothetical assumption of lack of due medical care.”
