ADDITIONAL BENCH STATE CONSUMER DISPUTES REDRESSAL COMMISSION, PUNJAB, CHANDIGARH Date of Institution : 31.01.2022 Date of Reserve : 05.04.2024 Date of Decision : 25.04.2024

1. The Principal Secretary, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Room No.313, 3^rd Floor, Mini Secretariat, Chandigarh.

2. The Director, Health and Family Welfare, Parivar Kalyan Bhawan, Sector 34-A, Chandigarh.

3. The Chief Medical Officer, Civil Surgeon Office, Dandi Swami Road, Civil Lines, Near Old Court, Ludhiana.

….Appellants/Opposite parties Versus Gurjit Kaur wife of S.Pritam Singh, resident of House No.1173, MIG Flats, Sector -32, Chandigarh Road, Ludhiana.

…..Respondent/complainant First Appeal under Section 41 of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019 against the order dated 30.03.2021 of the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Ludhiana. Quorum:-

Mr.Harinderpal Singh Mahal, Presiding Judicial Member Mrs. Kiran Sibal, Member Present:-

For the appellants : None For the respondent : Sh.Leela Dhar, Advocate for Sh.Suneet Kumar, Advocate HARINDERPAL SINGH MAHAL, PRESIDING JUDICIAL MEMBER This appeal has been preferred by the appellants/opposite parties- The Principal Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare and others against the order dated 30.03.2021 passed by the District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Ludhiana (in short ‘District Commission’) whereby the complaint filed by the respondent/complainant under Section 12 of the Consumer Protection Act, (in short ‘the Act’) was allowed and opposite parties No.2 to 4 were directed to consider the claim of the complainant regarding reimbursement of the expenses incurred by her on the treatment of cancer from the CMC Hospital, Ludhiana between 09.12.2016 to 02.01.2017 and was directed to pay the same after affording an opportunity to remove the discrepancies, if any, in the documents or in the application form submitted by the complainant.

It would be apposite to mention that hereinafter the parties will be referred, as have been arrayed before the District Commission.

2. In nutshell, the complainant-Gurjit Kaur was admitted with Christian Medical College & Hospital, Ludhiana on 09.12.2016 as she was diagnosed as disease of Breast Cancer. Surgery was performed upon her. Subsequently, the complainant came to know that there is one Punjab Government scheme i.e. ‘Mukh Mantri Punjab Cancer Raahat Kosh’, which was launched for the benefit of the cancer patients and under this scheme certain hospital in the State of Punjab are empanelled, who were to give the treatment to the cancer patients and opposite party No.1 is one of the empanelled hospital, vide Notification dated 05.09.2019. As per this notification, the entire expenditure regarding the treatment of cancer patient was to be borne by the State Government through opposite party No.2 to opposite party No.4. After her admission with opposite party No.1, she asked the hospital staff to provide her necessary form for availing the benefit of the scheme but they denied to supply the same with the excuse that they had not been provided the forms for the said scheme by opposite parties No.2 to 4. After that, the complainant approached the office of Civil Surgeon, Ludhiana and obtained the relevant form and lodged the complaint regarding the conduct of the officials of opposite party No.1. She also paid a sum of Rs.84,048.75p for treatment to opposite party No.1 and this amount was to be reimbursed under the ‘Mukh Mantri Punjab Cancer Raahat Kosh Scheme’. After lot of efforts, this money was not paid to her by opposite parties No.2 to 4 under the scheme, which amounts to deficiency in service on the part of the opposite parties. Legal notice was also served upon opposite party No.1 on 30.10.2017 but despite that no action was taken. Resultantly, the complainant was compelled to approach the District Commission seeking following reliefs:

1) to pay Rs.84,048.75p spent on the treatment; and

2) to pay Rs.2,00,000/- as compensation for damages alon