The Supreme Court has clarified that the power to grant compensation is separate and distinct from the power of the State Medical Council (SMC) to examine the presence or absence of medical negligence on the part of a professional. The Court was deciding a Civil Appeal preferred against the Judgment of Calcutta High Court’s Division Bench, which held that the Commission did not have the jurisdiction to adjudicate issues of negligence and alleged deficiency in practice. The two-Judge Bench comprising Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice Manoj Misra held, “… in our considered view, the Commission was well within its jurisdiction in giving the findings that were challenged in the writ appeal before the High Court. The High Court gave too wide a berth to the State Medical Council leaving almost no room for the Commission to function. The power to grant compensation as is given under this Act, is separate and distinct from the power of the State Medical Council to examine the presence or absence of medical negligence on the part of a professional, and it nowhere interferes with the power of the State Medical Council to adjudicate the complaints of medical negligence.” Also Read - High Court U/S.482 CrPC Cannot Conduct Roving Enquiry At Pre-Trial Stage To Ascertain Whether Cheque Was Issued For Discharge Of Debt Not Merited:... The Bench added that if the findings of the Division Bench are accepted that deficiency in patient care service and medical negligence, in certain cases, are so enmeshed in one another that they cannot be separated, in quite a few cases the functionality of the Commission would be rendered impossible defeating the legislative intent behind the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017 [WBCE Act].
https://www.verdictum.in/court-updates/supreme-court/kousik-pal-v-bm-birla-heart-research-centre-2025-insc-1487-medical-negligence-1601950