No consumer case against medical officers rendering free services for hospital: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court recently reiterated that services rendered by medical officers free of charge, on behalf of the hospital, would not fall within the ambit of 'service' under Section 2(1)(o) of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) (Nivedita Singh v. Dr Asha Bharti and Others)..A Division Bench of Justices Hemant Gupta and V Ramasubramanian was hearing an appeal against an order of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) which held that the appellant was not a 'consumer' within the meaning of Section 2(1)(d)(ii) of the CPA."In terms of Section 2(1)(d)(ii) of the Act, a consumer is the one who hires or avails of any services for a ‘consideration’ which has been paid or promised or partly paid or partly promised," the Bench noted..It was the admitted case of the appellant that she had not paid any consideration for availing the services of the doctors and the nurses. Therefore, it was held that she would not be covered under the definition of 'consumer' to avail remedies under the CPA.The appellant argued that payment for services availed is not a necessary ingredient to file a complaint under the CPA. However, the Court declined to accept the said argument in view of its decision in Indian Medical Association v. VP Shantha & Ors, where the Court had held that if the service rendered by the hospital does not fall within the ambit of 2(1)(0) of the Act being free of charge, the same service cannot be treated as service under Section 2(1)(0). This is because the service has been rendered by a medical officer who receives salary for the employment in the hospital."It was thus concluded (in Indian Medical Association) that the services rendered by employee-medical officer to such a person would therefore continue to be service rendered free of charge and would be outside the purview of Section 2(1)(0) of the Act."As a result, the appeal was dismissed..Advocate-on-Record Niranjana Singh and Advocate Atul Tripathi appeared for the appellant.Advocates-on-Record T Mahipal and Manjeet Chawla along with Advocates Prerna Singh and Neerja Sachdeva appeared for the respondents..[Read Judgment]