UP Govt Admits Woman Died Due To Wrong Blood Transfusion At SRN Hospital; High Court Forms Panel To Fix Lapses, Mulls Compensation

A bench of Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Siddharth Nandan recorded the State's submission and immediately directed the formation of a high-level committee to curb such incidents and fix accountability in the matter.

The bench has also sought assistance from the Additional Advocate General (AAG) Rahul Agarwal and the petitioner's counsels regarding the parameters within which a Constitutional Court can grant compensation in such cases.

For context, the bench is dealing with a writ petition filed by the son of the deceased 

During the proceedings on February 2, 2026, AAG, representing the State, admitted that while the deceased was 'O' Positive, the blood group 'AB' Positive was administered to her, leading to severe post-operative complications and she later died.

The Court also noted that the medical documents placed on record prima facie indicated that the subsequent treatment given to the deceased was merely an attempt to “offset/counter the ill effects of the transfusion of wrong blood group”.

Taking a stern view of the incident, the Bench observed that the Right to Life is a fundamental right enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution of India.

The Court said that it is a constitutional obligation on the State and its functionaries to ensure that this right is not violated in any manner.

The Court explicitly noted that the Principal of the concerned Medical College was under a duty to ensure that the rights of the patients admitted in his Medical College are protected, and that the admitted incident clearly reflected a failure of that duty.

Since the State did not dispute that the cause of death was the transfusion of the wrong blood group to the woman, the Court observed that it did not need to adjudicate on the issue of negligence.

Apart from this, to prevent a recurrence of such cases, the Court directed the newly impleaded Director General of Medical Education, UP (Respondent No. 6) to instruct the hospital administration to constitute a committee.

The Court stated that this committee will be chaired by the Principal of the Medical College and will have members from different departments and it will collect data and recommendations necessary for the overall functioning of the medical college.

The Bench added that the committee must ensure that in future, just because of a lack of facilities and the availability of a mechanism to curb such incidents, which may result in the death of a patient, no such untoward incident takes place.

The Court ordered that a comprehensive report outlining necessary “infrastructural or procedural directives” must be submitted to the Director General within five weeks.

The Court further clarified that the Director General is under an obligation to provide all necessary assistance, whether financial or administrative, to implement these safety measures.

The Court has also directed the Principal of the Medical College to file a personal affidavit bringing on record the committee's report and the response of the Director General. The matter has been listed for further hearing on March 23, 2026