An Overview of Health Care Jurisprudence in India

Pinto, Edward Premdas

This chapter provides a synthesis of the health care jurisprudence that has been laid down through litigations in various intersecting domains of health care in the post-independence period. The foundations of health care jurisprudence were first laid down through litigations related to environmental justice, workers’ rights, civil liberties, and tort jurisprudence in India. Applying these foundational principles, the health care jurisprudence further evolved through subsequent litigations in key health care domains—viz. emergency medical care; drugs and medicines; reproductive and maternal health care; health care of children; mental health care and rights of persons with psychosocial disabilities; rights of persons living with HIV/AIDS; health care entitlements and elite government employees; patient rights and medical profession (medical negligence); and, litigations on the issues of public health and health care health services. Both the foundational jurisprudential principles as well as the health care jurisprudence crystallised through ten subdomains of health care, unpack the gains and challenges such processes entailed over five decades in India.