The facade of Ruby General Hospital, on the Bypass. A Telegraph picture

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission has directed Ruby General Hospital to pay damages of Rs 10 lakh to the family of an accident victim, who died after being turned away as he couldn?t pay the admission deposit.

On January 14, 2001, around 8.10 am, Sumanta Mukherjee, 20, a second-year B.Tech student of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Engineering College, was going to his tutor?s home on a motorcycle when a bus hit him on the EM Bypass.

Passers-by rushed Sumanta to Ruby, about a km away from the accident site. In his complaint, Sumanta?s father Pravat Kumar Mukherjee said the hospital administered first-aid but later demanded Rs 15,000 from the people who had brought him in, before admitting him to the neurology department. When they couldn?t raise the money, the hospital released him. Sumanta was then rushed to Medical College Hospital, where he was declared brought dead.

?Can doctors insist and wait for money when death is knocking on the doors of the patient?? asked Justice M.B. Shah, president of the commission, in the April 25 judgment delivered in Delhi. ?There was no justifiable ground for discontinuing the treatment? In emergency or critical cases, let them discharge their duty? of rendering service without waiting for fees or for consent.?

A spokesperson for the hospital declined comment. ?We haven?t got the copy of the judgment yet, so we cannot comment. Once we get it, we?ll decide on our course of action.?

Counsel for the hospital argued that Sumanta was released as those with him wanted to take him to a government hospital. The judge, however, noted that no paperwork required for the transfer was done, establishing that admission ?was refused solely on the ground that the persons who brought him? were not in a position to deposit the amount of Rs 15,000?.

Following Sumanta?s death, the government had cancelled the hospital?s licence for a while. It also amended the Clinical Establishments Act, making it mandatory for all medical centres, hospitals and nursing homes to set up emergency medical facilities.