The role of clinical guidelines in medical negligence litigation: has India made the shift?

Abstract

India has been following English law for certain principles that are well developed in common law. On the issue of medical negligence, India had adopted the principle laid down in the Bolam case which held that a doctor is not negligent if what he has done would be endorsed by a responsible body of medical opinion in the relevant specialty at the material time. This was followed until 2001 when the first reference was made to the Bolitho test. In time, the Bolam test evolved in the English courts and was made stricter by the Bolitho case. But the Indian courts still follow the Bolam test. Hence this paper will analyse whether India needs to adopt the new test to satisfy the requirements of stricter medical negligence laws and meet the needs of increasing negligence litigation.