The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) has dismissed a plea by Medanta The Medicity Hospital, which claimed that the State Commission in Delhi has no jurisdiction over it as the hospital is located in Gurugram.
The hospital had appealed to the NCDRC against the interim order passed by the Delhi State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (DSCDRC) in a matter of alleged medical negligence, stating that the State commission did not have ‘territorial jurisdiction to deal with the matter’.
The DSCDRC had admitted a consumer complaint filed by V. S. Tyagi, wherein he alleged medical negligence against the hospital in the treatment of his wife, who was suffering from a coronary disease that ultimately led to her death.
However, the hospital had opposed the admission of the complaint, stating that the hospital was located in Gurugram and that the DSCDRC had no territorial jurisdiction as ‘no cause of action had arisen in Delhi’.
The hospital contended that the complaint could be filed in Delhi only if the ‘hospital itself or its branch office was situated at Delhi’.
No jurisdictional error
It also alleged that the DSCDRC had wrongly observed that a part of the treatment was done in Delhi.
The hospital further claimed that the patient had been treated by the same doctor, but in a different hospital and that it had no bearing on the treatment done at Medicity Hospital.
Referring to the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, the NCDRC stated that the State commission’s jurisdictional limits included areas where the party ‘carries on business or has a branch office or personally works for gain’.
“The words ‘carries on business’ do imply that the complaint could be instituted at a place from where the business of the opposite party is being handled, controlled or supervised,” read the order.
The NCDRC observed that as the hospital had its corporate or registered office in Delhi, it did give the State commission jurisdiction over it.
“The hospital is ‘carrying on its business’ from Delhi and the consumer complaint could be filed in Delhi as well,” read the order.
Dismissing the hospital’s plea, the NCDRC said: “It is held that the order passed by the State commission does not suffer from any illegality or jurisdictional error and the complaint has been rightly ordered to be admitted by the State commission.”
