Court case(1996) 4 SCC 332

The appellant's husband fell ill with fever and was treated by the respondent, Dr. Ashwin Patel, a practitioner registered in homoeopathy, who prescribed allopathic medicines for him. The patient's condition did not improve and later deteriorated; he was shifted to a nursing home and then to a hospital, where he died. The appellant complained to the National Commission under the Consumer Protection Act 1986 that her husband had died because of the negligence of the respondent in treating him with a system of medicine in which he was neither qualified nor registered to practise. The National Commission dismissed the complaint, and the widow appealed to the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court allowed the appeal. Negligence means breach of a duty of care; a medical practitioner owes his patient the duty to exercise the skill of an ordinarily competent practitioner of his own system. A person registered only to practise homoeopathy, who has no knowledge of or qualification in allopathy, and who nevertheless prescribes allopathic medicine, acts in breach of the statutory restrictions on his practice and of his duty of care. Such conduct is negligence per se, without further proof of the standard of care. The respondent was held liable for deficiency in service, and the Court awarded compensation to the appellant.