The Supreme Court of India directed State governments to tackle high medical charges in private hospitals, avoiding strict intervention to prevent hindering healthcare growth. The Court stressed the need for balanced policies to protect patients from exploitation.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India asked State governments to make a decision on controlling high medical charges and stopping the exploitation of patients in private hospitals.
A team of Justices, Surya Kant and N Kotishwar Singh, shared their opinion that the Supreme Court should not directly interfere by giving strict orders. They explained that if the Court issues such directions, it might slow down the growth of private hospitals.
The Court suggested that it is better if each State government creates its own policies to handle this issue.
“Policy-makers are the best equipped to take a holistic view and formulate the guidelines as may be required, to safeguard the patients or their attendants from exploitation while simultaneously, ensuring that there is no discouragement and unreasonable restriction on private entities from entering the health sector,”
-the Court said.
Following this, the Court directed all States to take action and decide on this matter.
“It may not be advisable for this Court to issue mandatory directions which may hamper the growth of hospitals in the private sector; but parallelly, it is necessary to sensitize the State Governments re: the problem of unreasonable charges and exploitation of patients in private hospitals. Consequently, we dispose of this Writ Petition with a direction to all the State Governments to consider this issue and take appropriate policy decisions as they may deem fit,”
-the March 4 ruling said.
The Supreme Court was responding to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) that raised concerns about private hospitals forcing patients to buy medicines and medical supplies only from their in-house pharmacies at very high prices.
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The petitioners argued that private hospitals and nursing homes were unfairly charging patients by making it compulsory to buy medicines from their own pharmacies. The case began after the petitioners experienced this firsthand when a family member was undergoing cancer treatment and was charged extremely high prices for medicines.
According to the petitioners, such practices are a form of financial exploitation and violate the fundamental right to health under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. They also pointed out that the absence of strict regulations has allowed private hospitals to continue imposing excessive charges. Therefore, they requested the Court to step in and stop these unfair practices.
The Supreme Court agreed that healthcare is a crucial part of the right to life under Article 21. However, it also recognized that due to India’s large population, State governments have faced difficulties in building enough medical facilities.
To bridge this gap, the government encouraged private investors to set up hospitals, leading to the rise of several well-known private healthcare institutions in the country. These hospitals now compete with top medical facilities across the world.
“It, therefore, must be acknowledged that not only the people, even the States look towards these private entities to provide basic and specialized medical facilities to the public at large,”
-the Court said.
While acknowledging the importance of private hospitals, the Court stated that it cannot pass any order that might slow down their expansion.
Instead, it urged State governments to take responsibility and make suitable policies to regulate private healthcare practices.
Cause Title:
Siddharth Dalmia & Anr. v. Union of India & Ors.
(Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 351)
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