Supreme Court Seeks Centre’s Response on Plea to Exclude Doctors from Consumer Protection Act

The Supreme Court sought responses from the Union Ministries of Health and Consumer Affairs on a plea seeking to exclude doctors from the Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

The PIL was filed by the Association of Healthcare Providers (India), challenging the treatment of medical services as “services” under consumer law.

The petition argued that applying consumer law to healthcare promotes defensive medical practice and undermines the trust-based doctor–patient relationship. It stated that medical treatment involves professional judgment in uncertain situations and should not be equated with commercial services.

The plea further contended that doctors are already regulated through medical councils, civil courts and criminal law, which are better suited to examine allegations of medical negligence.