Health Care Services Under Consumer Protection Laws of Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir:A Socio-Legal Mapping

Ever since the passing of the Jammu & Kashmir Consumer Protection Act, 1987, the doctor-patient’s relationship came under critical scrutiny, controversy and litigation. The inadequacy of consumer protections laws results in unavoidable contingency, spiralling cost shifting and inordinate health care complexities. It examines health care services as a matter of consumer rights under Consumer Protection Act, 1986, Jammu and Kashmir Consumer Protection Act, 1987 and Consumer Protection Act, 2019. It makes consumers to navigate between hope and despair for access to health care. The paperis driven to analytical study of the inadequacy of consumer laws in dealing effectively deficiency of medical service, insufficiency of health care services,lack of medical professionalism and negligence a case study of Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Srinagar is undertaken by encompassing a legislative survey of consumer laws in inculcating Consumer Right Awareness (CRA) and toning of structural governance of grievance redressal mechanism. The gap between the precept and practice of consumer justice and compensation in health care services is identified for adoption of a robust infrastructural and schematic revamping.