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ShareMumbai: Consumer laws in India are addressing areas that are not only a must, but also just. The 'Good Samaritan' principle, which is a criterion in assessing the standards of a civilised country, has been recently applied by a Consumer Court in Union of India vs Smt Lalitha Kumari and others by the Kerala State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission.
Lalitha's daughter Lathika was traveling by train in the Himsagar Express from Sunam in Punjab to Kottayam, Kerala. On the journey, Lathika became ill. The relatives of the passenger informed the railway officials on board of the problem, but they stated that they were helpless and did nothing to help her. Lathika died during the journey. Her parents and relatives sued the railways for deficiency of service. The matter went to the local District Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum at Alapuzzha, which recorded evidence of the fellow travellers and concluded that the railways had not provided service and directed it to pay Rs40,000 to the mother as compensation for the same.
The railways chose to contest this appeal in the State Commission. It contended that the post-mortem report of the deceased revealed that the patient was suffering from serious diseases like Meningitis and Tuberculosis and death was due to the diseases, not due to negligence of the railways.
The Commission noted that the railway officials had not given any statement on what they had done to afford medical aid to the ailing passenger. Just stating that there were medical facilities on board the train in case of emergency did not prove that the aid reached the passenger in her hour of need, it further noted. On the question of whether medical aid would have been of any help to her at all in view of the serious nature of her ailment, the Commission observed that this was not sufficient ground to deny her help in her hour of need. The Commission upheldthe compensation of Rs40,000 granted by the forum and added that the relatives were entitled to 9% interest on the sum from the date of filing of the complaint till date of payment, along with Rs1,000 as costs.
