Supreme Court held
Hospital deficient in services for giving dead body to the wrong person
Supreme Court remarks "The habit of passing the
operative part and reasoned order after a time gap of eight months deserve to
be deprecated”
1.
The Ernakulum Medical
Centre Hospital in Kerala released the dead body of the Petitioners' father,
Purushothaman, to the family of one Kanthy ,Kanthy's family cremated
Purushothaman's body, thus depriving the Petitioners' from seeing their father
for one last time.
2.
Facts in brief as stated in the complaint are that
Purushothaman father of both the
complainants died on 30.12.2009 evening during treatment in M/s. Ernakulam
Medical Centre Hospital, Ernakulam . His dead body was kept in the refrigerated
box in the mortuary of the hospital.Dead body of one Lt. Col. A.P.
Kanthi about 88 years was also kept in the mortuary in the refrigerated box. On
the 01.01.2010, Mr. Jayasankar, the grandson of the patient, late
Mr. R. Purushothaman along with his father Justice P.S. Gopinathan approached
the hospital in early morning for release of dead body of R. Purushothaman. It
came as a surprise to them that the dead body was not of late R. Purushothaman,
but it was of Lt. Col. A.P. Kanthi. Immediately, after knowing the fact,
it came to light that Mr. V. K. Pramesh, the public relations
officers (PRO) of the Medical center has already released one body to the
immediate relatives of Lt. Col. A.P. Kanthi and it was cremated with the
religious rites. The relatives of late Lt. Col. A.P. Kanthi were contacted who
admitted their mistake and sought apology to Justice P.S. Gopinathan and
thereafter handed over to them the ashes of late Mr. R. Purushothaman. The dead
body of Lt. Col. A.P. Kanthi was released to their concerned relatives. It was
alleged that wrongly releasing the dead body of the father of the complainants
deprived their right to decent cremation / burial of their deceased
father. It caused severe mental agony also. Being aggrevied by the
deficiency in service on the part of the hospital, the two younger daughters of
deceased R. Purushothaman filed a complaint no.22/2011 before the
Kerala State Commission and claimed compensation from O.P.s for Rs. 1 crore
with 18 % interest from the date of filing of the complaint.
3.
.State commission vide
its order dated
05.10.2016 allowed the complaint 21/2011 and awarded Rs. 25 Lakhs with 12 %
interest from the date of complaint till realization together with cost of Rs.
10,000/-.
4.
An appeal was filed by M/s.
Ernakulam Medical Centre and its director before the national commission
challenging the quantum of compensation
granted by the Kerala State Commission for the alleged negligence and
deficiency in service
5.
Case was defended by the
medical center and the reasoning given by the hospital is that Purushothaman was cremated properly by
Kanthy's relatives and his ashes were received by the Petitioners for further
religious rites.
6.
NCDRC in their order though
agreed with the observations made by the State Commission that it was
deficiency on the part of Hospital but saying so ,reduced the compensation to
Rs. 5 lakhs and directed to the hospital to pay Rs. 25 lakhs as costs to the
Consumer Legal Aid account of the State Commission.
7. After hearing the arguments on 04.07.2019, the operative portion kept pending for and final order was pronounced on 12 Mar 2020
8.
Supreme Court believed
that fundamental rights of Purushothaman were infringed as they could not
perform the last rites of their father in accordance with the Hindu
customs.Apex Court was not convinced with the order of National Commission
reducing the amount of compensation and the same directed to be deposited with welfare
fund. Supreme court stayed the NCDRC
order and issued notice to the parties
Ref. Dr. P.R. Jayasree &
Anr. Versus M/S Ernakulam Medical Centre & Anr
Record of
proceedings SLP (CIVIL)
(Arising out of final judgment dated
12.3.2020 in FA No. 273/2017 04-07-2019
by National Commission)
Bench : Hon'ble Mr.
Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman, Hon'ble Mr. Justice Navin Sinha
Diary No(s). 23610/2020
(SC)
Date : 14-12-2020