Supreme Court Holds Hospital Liable For Handing Over Dead Body To Wrong Family, Allows Rs 25 Lakh Compensation

The Supreme Court recently held that there was deficiency in service on the part of a Hospital in Ernakulam, Kerala, that handed over the body of a deceased patient to the wrong family who cremated the body.

A bench of Justice Hima Kohli and Justice Sandeep Mehta while disposing of cross-appeals by the complainants as well as the hospital, restored a compensation award of Rs. 25 lakhs to the complainants, whose father's body was handed over to another family.

The bench disapproved of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission decision, which reduced the compensation of Rs.25 lakhs awarded by the State Commission to Rs 5 lakhs.

“there was no justification for the NCDRC to have interfered in the order passed by the SCDRC particularly in view of the fact that the complainants were wronged. There was deficiency in service on the part of the appellant-Hospital having handed over the dead body of the father of the complaints to another family who cremated the said body. Therefore, the appellants could not have avoided their liability on account of deficiency of service”, the Court held.

On December 30, 2009, R Purushothaman, the father of the complainants, was admitted to Ernakulam Medical Centre and died later that night. His family requested that his body be kept in the hospital's mortuary. Lt. Col. AP Kanthy was admitted to the same hospital on December 28, 2009, and passed away on December 31, 2009. His body was also placed in the hospital's mortuary.

When Purushothaman's family arrived at the hospital on January 1, 2010, to collect his body, they pointed out that the body in the mortuary was not of Purushothaman. It came to light that the hospital handed over Purushothaman's body to Kanthy's family, who had cremated it by then.

Purushothaman's family filed a complaint before the Kerala State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (SCDRC), seeking Rs. 1 crore in compensation for the hospital's negligence.

On October 5, 2016, the SCDRC ruled in the complainants' favour, and ordered the hospital to pay Rs. 25 lakhs in compensation with 12 percent interest per annum from the date of the complaint. The hospital filed an appeal before the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC).

On July 4, 2019, the NCDRC reduced the compensation to Rs. 5 lakhs and directed the hospital to deposit Rs. 25 lakhs into the Consumer Legal Aid Account of the State Commission. The complainants as well as the hospital filed appeals against this decision before the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court held that the NCDRC had no justification for interfering with the SCDRC's order.

“We are of the opinion that there was no justification for passing such an order. The SCDRC had applied its mind on entire conspectus of facts and the evidence produced by the parties and thereafter arrived at a conclusion that ₹ a sum of 25,00,000/- (Rupees Twenty Five Lakhs only) would be adequate compensation for the complainants”, the Court stated.

The Court set aside the NCDRC's order and reinstated the SCDRC order awarding Rs. 25 lakhs to the complainants. However, it reduced the interest rate on the compensation from 12 percent to 7.5 percent per annum.

The Court allowed the complainants to withdraw Rs. 10 lakhs already deposited by the hospital with the SCDRC, along with any accrued interest, and directed the hospital to pay the remaining Rs. 15 lakhs along with interest to the complainants.

For complainants - Mr. V. Chitambaresh, Sr. Adv; Mr. A. Karthik, AOR; Ms. Smrithi Suresh, Adv.; Mr. Sugam Agrawal, Adv.; Mr. C. Govind Venugopal, Adv.;

For hospital - Mrs. K.Radha, Adv; Mr. K.Maruthi Rao, Adv; Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, AOR

Case no. – Special Leave To Appeal (C) No. 3545/2020

Case Title – M/s Ernakulam Medical Centre & Anr. v. Dr. PR Jayasree & Anr.

Citation : 2024 LiveLaw (SC) 583

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