Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 2019 and the Surgeons
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Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 2019 and the Surgeons Kaushik Bhattacharya 1 Received: 23 July 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 # Association of Surgeons of India 2020
Abstract The Consumer Protection Act (CPA 2019) has finally received the assent of the president of India and was published in the official gazette on 9 August 2019. The surgeons must now understand the act so that they can deal with the consumer cases arising out of medical negligence in the court in a much better way. The surgical practice will have to change accordingly to escape coming under the gambit of CPA 2019. Every surgeon must have a strong professional indemnity insurance in the current scenario. Keywords Consumer protection act . Medical negligence . Litigation
Introduction The Consumer Protection Bill, 2019, was recently passed by the parliament and has been notified by the government post receipt of the presidential assent. The Consumer Protection Act, 2019 (“CPA 2019”), finally repeals the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 (“CPA 1986”), after two attempts made in the last 4 years. CPA 2019 aims to strengthen consumer interests and establish regulatory authority for timely and effective administration and settlement of consumers’ disputes. This act gives ample opportunity for the aggrieved person to file a case against the deficiency of healthcare services for medical negligence and redressal.
The New CPA 2019 The pecuniary jurisdiction has been modified tremendously in this new act. While the district consumer redressal forum’s jurisdiction has been increased from Rs 10 Lakhs to Rs 1 crore, that of the State Consumer Commission has increased from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crores. The national commission will focus on cases of more than Rs 10 crore. CPA 2019 has also changed the territorial jurisdiction. The CPA 2019 now provides an added * Kaushik Bhattacharya [email protected] 1
CAPFs Composite Hospital BSF Kadamtala, G616, Uttorayon, Matigara, Siliguri, West Bengal 734010, India
advantage to the consumers by providing for filing of complaints where the complainant resides or personally works for gain as against the CPA 1986 which only provides for filing of complaint where the opposite party resides or carry on business. This would help in removing the difficulties faced by the patients in seeking redressal of their grievances against the hospital who may not have an office or branch in their state. The condition for the appeal has also been modified. In CPA 1986, an appeal challenging an order of district forum to State Consumer Commission requires a prescribed fee of Rs.25000 or 50% of the decreetal amount whichever is less, from state commission to national commission required the prescribed fee of Rs 35,000 or 50% of the decreetal amount whichever is less and national commission to Supreme Court required prescribed fee of Rs.50000 or 50% of the decretal amount whichever is less, the new CPA 2019 has bought an uniform measure for appeal. Any doctor aggrieved by an order made by the lower court may prefer an appeal agains
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