INTRODUCTION
“Healthcare is an essential safeguard of human life and dignity and there is an obligation for society to ensure that every person be able to realise this right.”
-Joseph Bernardin.
Even though the digitalisation of healthcare has undergone an unprecedented surge during the Covid-19, the concepts of telemedicine and telehealth aren’t new. In fact they have been practiced in various forms since the late 19th century1. Be it a patient contacting their trusted family doctor over telephone for diagnosis and treatment in the 1900s, or the 21st centurions using internet, instant messaging, social media messaging apps, internet enabled voice and video calls or specialised telemedicine platforms and apps to contact the doctors, telemedicine has existed in diverse forms. Thus, it is imperative to ensure that the quality of care the patients receive via telemedicine consultations as well as their rights during and after such consultations and treatment must mirror the standards of traditional treatment.
Telemedicine can take the form of a telephone conversation, a SMS, an email, a WhatsApp voice or video call to the doctor directly or through private telemedicine platforms like Practo, Teledoc etc. even large private hospitals have established their own telemedicine ecosystem to serve their customers remotely, for example Apollo Telehealth. The government of India has also established a national level free telemedicine platform named as eSanjeevani, with the aim of attaining universal health coverage in India and to promote digital health equality by bridging digital health divide as per the goals of national health policy, 20172. As on February 2026, the eSanjeevani portal claims to have served around 3 crore (44,92,18,141) patients3.
The term telemedicine can be split into tele + medicine which indicates that it’s the process of providing treatment remotely or from a distance. Which means that the rights of patients must be protected in two different spheres, namely their physical health rights must be safeguarded during the treatment as well as their digital rights must be safeguarded in the tele-medium of cyberspace. Thus any law dealing with protection of rights of patients in telemedicine must take a triangular techno-medico-legal approach.
In this paper, I emphasise the importance of securing the rights of patients holistically to make them feel secure and confident in receiving treatment, especially in the mode of telemedicine, which undoubtedly will be the main mode of treatment in the future. So it’s the duty of the legal system to lay down strong foundations to make people feel safe by securing their rights and allowing them to be open to adapt and trust new technologies like telemedicine with their health. This will in long run aid the fulfilment of our goal to achieve universal health coverage and digital health equity.
TELEMEDICINE PROCESS
The process of telemedicine consultation begins when the consultation is initiated but the patient or doctor through any app or other telecommunication mediums. Then the patient identification process is done where the identity of the patient, their age etc is confirmed. The doctor also establishes his identity to the patient. Then the patient consent is received explicitly or if the patient initiated the consultation the consent is implied. The health information is exchanged. The patient supplies the doctor with all their health records, medical history, lab results etc to facilitate diagnosis and treatment without physical checkups. If the doctor is satisfied that that patient can be trained through tele-mode itself then the consultation becomes patient management and the treatment stage begins. The doctors educates, gives counselling and treatment to the patient. Any e-prescription provided must be digitally signed to ensure validity. For chronic illnesses, remote monitoring is also done. Throughout the course of this treatment a digital trail of health records is to be securely maintained for each patient.
HISTORY OF PATIENTS’ RIGHTS IN INDIA
In India the patient rights are scattered and fragmented across various legislations and rules. Notably the Constitution of India (Article 21), The Consumer Protection Act 2019, the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002, Drugs and Cosmetic Act 1940, etc. Under the constitution of India even though Right to Health is not explicitly mentioned, the Preamble calls India a socialist state, which indicates that it’s the duty of the government to follow egalitarian principles and ensure proper health care facilities are available and accessible to all its citizens4. Since the Right to Life provided under Article 21is not merely a right to live a merely animalistic life, but a dignified and healthy one, it can be interpreted to include right to health, right to access to doctors etc. In fact, the Supreme Court explicitly interpreted Article 21 and rules that right to life includes right to health in the State of Punjab v. Mahinder Singh Chawla5. In Paschim Bangal Khet Mazdoor Samity v. State of West Bengal6 the Supreme Court held that the State has a duty under Article 21 to provide medical assistance to safeguard human lives through government hospitals. In Parmanand Katara v. Union of India7 the Supreme Court again extended the Article 21 to include right to get medical aid as a part of right to healthy life.
In 2019, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) drew inspiration from global standards8 to draft the Charter of Patients’ Rights. the NHRC then advised the central government to implement the throughout India to make them legally enforceable. Since health is a state subject9 the centre urged the states to adopt and implement the same to the hospitals falling under the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2010 and those hospital empanelled under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri – Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).
Based on the instructions many states like Andra Pradesh and West Bengal have adopted the rights as a part of their existing Clinical Establishments Act, some states like Tamil Nadu have passed orders giving formal recognitions to the rights an ordering all health institutions to prominently display the patients’ rights. Madhya Pradesh amended the MP Nursing Homes Act, 1973 to implement patient rights.
Rajasthan is the only state that drafted a new legislation to guarantee the rights of patients who are also Rajasthani residents. The Rajasthan Right to Health Act, 202210 was enacted by the state, as a part of fulfilling its obligation under the Article 4711 of the Constitution of India to safeguard the right to health of all its residents under Article 21 by providing free, accessible, equitable and quality health care to them12. Section 3(a) to (t) lists a myriad of patients right, like right to receive free health care services and medicines from public health institutions, right to emergency treatment, right to information about their diagnosis, right to access their patient records, right to choose alternate treatment, right to patient education and grievance redressal etc.
This act, in my opinion will be a champion every state of India will strive to achieve in the future, to empower its citizens thereby securing universal right to health.
RIGHTS OF PATIENTS IN TRADITIONAL/ IN-PERSON MEDICINE
The main aim of establishing any patient rights charter is to empower the patients with trust and confidence that they will receive a good standard of care and if they don’t receive such expected care the states guarantee to reestablish their rights by having their grievances redressed. It also makes it easy to establish a smooth doctor- patient relationship where each party knows what is expected from them and acts accordingly, which helps in maintaining the fairness of healthcare system and maintain its higher standards to take care of the ailing population. Most importantly they educate the citizens about the minimum standard of treatment they must expect and deserve from any healthcare provider and never settle for less and fight for it in case of its deprival.
In traditional medicine there are a multitude of rights offered to the patients to protect and promote their dignity, physical safety, mental peace and therefore their overall human rights. The four major principles to be followed by any healthcare professional are13, autonomy (respecting the patient’s decisions and choices about their treatment and care), beneficence (always acting in the best interest of the patients), non- maleficence or do no harm principle (not doing any actions that can harm the patient) and justice ( fair, equal, quality and affordable healthcare access to all).
Few of the common patients’ rights are:
• Right to universal access to healthcare and treatment to all
• Right to receive adequate information about their illness, the diagnosis, treatment plan, expected outcomes, risks involved and costs.
• Right to informed consent, where the patient is explained every detail of a risky treatment and only after they consent can the treatment be performed.
• Right to access the original copies of their health records on demand.
• Right to privacy, confidentiality of their medical information and health records, non-disclosure of their health condition without consent.
• Right to seek second medical opinion from any other doctor of their choice.
• Right to receive quality treatment and health care according to accepted medical standards.
• Right to continuity of care through proper transfer to another hospital or home or when the case is referred to another doctor. In such cases They have the right to seek justification of such transfer along with transfer of all records a relevant information for continuing the care.
• Right to safety, security and cleanliness in the hospital premises.
• Right to emergency treatment in all health care facilities especially accident cases without delay.
• Right to receive detailed bill for treatments and medicines.
• Right to know the legitimacy of the health care provider, their name, education qualification, experience details. Their medical licence must be prominently displayed to be verified.
• To receive treatment without any discrimination on the conditions of race, religion, caste, gender, economic status, language, sexual orientation or region.
• Right to be treated without bias or stigma towards illness, like communicable disease, HIV, etc.
• Right to access ambulance and transport to and from hospital to home or other hospital during transfer.
• Right to be informed beforehand about the treatment charges, doctor fees, hospital charges, room rate, diagnosis and testing prices and other charges for services provided.
• Right to choose where to purchase the medicines prescribed and which lab to perform the diagnostic tests from, instead of being forced towards a particular place.
• The patients have the right to discharge. The caretakers also have the right to receive dead bodies of the deceased patient. Both cannot be illegally detained in the hospital for lack of payment.
• Right to education about various forms of treatment available, various options for care, free treatment avenues, modes of seeking redressal etc.
• Patients and their caregivers have right to seek redressal if are aggrieved due to infringement of their rights. The redressal body must ensure they get a fair and quick redressal for the same.
ADAPTING THE CHARTER OF PATIENTS’ RIGHTS TO TELEMEDICINE
Most of the above mentioned right will also apply to the patients of telemedicine as they are common human rights expected by any patient when receiving a health care service. Some rights like discharge, receiving the dead body or undergoing clinical trial don’t apply to telemedicine patients. The key aspect to consider when trying to adapt the patient rights charter to telemedicine is the fact that the present rights only covers the bodily rights of the patients and not their digital rights. When healthcare traversed into cyber space vis a vis telemedicine it is imperative that the state is obligated to secure the cyber safety of the patients by securing their digital rights also.
A. Right to Access Medical Care
Although telemedicine can be accessed through telephone and SMS; internet enabled modes like telemedicine apps like the government’s e-sanjeevani, instant messengers and VOIP calls are the modes for future telemedicine. Right to access internet is a fundamental right in India14 and internet shutdowns are seeming as barbaric denial of fundamental freedoms. This right is the basic foundation for telemedicine. In India the digital divide is still prominent between rural and urban areas inside of many government schemes to increase the internet penetration15. Additionally the digital literacy is not universal and such knowledge is needed to access telemedicine apps effectively. Further many apps support text consultation enabled only in English and Hindi languages which alienates the service to other regional patients. Thus to protect right to access of medical care through telemedicine, it’s the state’s duty to secure people’s right to internet access, reduced digital divide, universalise digital literacy and take steps to remove regional and linguistic barriers to access.
B. Right to Information
The registered medical practitioner must equip the patients with all adequate and relevant information regarding their diagnosis, the cause of illness, propose treatment plan, any possible complications and expected cost of the treatment. All these information must be shared only by the qualified doctor, in simple terms and language for the patient to understand in written or oral form.
Additionally during telemedicine consultations, especially if it’s done through text or audio modes the doctor must first supply his identity, display his professional qualifications, medical license and registration details in his home page of the telemedicine app or in the bio of his instant messaging app for the patient to verify. This is essential to prevent fake practitioners. Before beginning the tele-consultation process the doctor must use his professional judgement to decide whether telemedicine is the appropriate medium to treat the patient’s condition or else he must advice the patient to opt for in-person consultation16.
The doctor must collect all relevant patient details, medical history, diagnostic results and images before arriving at a diagnosis and give proper advice to the patient during first consultation and further care advice for them or follow-up consultation.17 The tele-patient has the right to all such information to make an informed decision before and during tele-consultation and treatment process.
C. Right to Records and Reports
It is the duty of the doctor or his assistants, be it human or AI assistants to maintain a record or digital trial of the entire tele-consultation and treatment process. The patients have the right to access the original copies of their electronic health record on demand. As per the Electronic Health Record (HER) Standards established in 2013 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, all EHR must contain details like patient’s name age, diagnosis, doctors details, treatment procedure, images, wave forms and other lab test results, audio, video, photo captures, scanned documents of patient medical history, e-prescriptions etc.
The document also lays down standards for the following18
• All patient records must be encrypted in SHA 256-bit algorithm to maintain health data integrity.
• All medical terms used in the record must conform to SNOMED clinical terms standard. The standards also proposed hardware and software requirements to ensure data security. All health informatics data must adhere to ISO standards. There must be proper standards for access control, audit, health data exchange, digital certificate etc, to maintain patient data security and protect their right to privacy.
• All e-prescriptions must confirm by Pharmacy Practice Regulations, 2015.
RIGHT TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL CARE
Any doctor/ telemedicine platform is duty bound to provide basic emergency healthcare to patients without compromise of quality of care19. They must assist with first aid to ensure immediate relief, then continue remote monitoring or facilitate transfer or referral to impersonal care. Such rights will be a literal lifesaver in cases like providing emergency care in ambulance by health workers under the tele-supervision of doctors, or providing remote health care advice to fight attendants to handle an inflight medical emergency by doctors on ground20.
E. Right to Informed Consent
All doctors must get explicit informed consent from patient before starting any risky treatment. It is the duty of the doctor to clearly explain to the patient the risks involved in the procedure along with all relevant information through audio or video mode in a language easily understood by them and get oral video consent or written Informed consent before starting the treatment.
In telemedicine if the patient initiates the consultation consent is implied by their action.
Explicit consent is needed if the doctor or other health worker initiates the tele-consultation. The consent must reflect the patients intend to consent to the tele-consultation unambiguously
F. Right to Confidentiality, Human Dignity and Privacy
Right to privacy has been declared as a fundaments right in the landmark judgment of Justice K Puttaswamy v. Union of India21 in 2017, since right to privacy extends to all aspects of a human life tele-patients also get the right to protect their privacy online; keep their data safe and medical history confidential. The doctors have the duty to not disclose the health conditions of their patients without consent except when a third party is affected (as in the case of X v. Hospital Z22 where the court held that the doctor was not in the wrong for disclosing a patient’s HIV positive status to his fiancé to save her, which resulted in their wedding being called off) or for a matter of public health.
In telemedicine especially on video consultation the patient must not be record without their consent. If patient is recorded in such vulnerable moment the doctor will violate section 66E of the IT Act. If the doctor breaches the confidentiality of the data and leaks the data he can be penalised under section 72 of IT Act.
Any audio or video recording made with patients consent must also not be stored beyond required time as per the DPDP Act. Since telemedicine service provider is a data fiduciary under the DPDP Act and health data is considered sensitive personal information under the IT SPD Rules, Telemedicine Service Provider (TmSP) must completely abide by the DPDP Act provisions on information handling, data transfer, handling of child patient data, cross border data transfer etc. or else they can be penalised for up to 250 crores.
Since Health sector is a big target of cyber criminals TmSP also have the duty to make sure their platform is not vulnerable to any technology breach or cyber-attacks.
If at all a data breach occurs it is the duty of the TMSP to inform the data principles that is the patients that their data is breached. Doctors must exercise reasonable care whole choosing the EHR management portal or cloud services to store patient data. They must undertake cyber hygiene practices so that the health record system does not fall an easy prey to cyber criminals and hackers who steal and sell health data in dark web for lucrative prices.
The doctors must not use images or videos of patients to advertise or leak it in social media. If it is done accidentally the patients must be financially compensated, if it’s done intentionally the doctor must be penalised for criminal breach of trust.
Doctors must uphold the dignity of their patients of telemedicine also. Their actions must adhere to the ethics code in a professional manner or else they will be penalised as per existing laws.
G. Right to Second Opinion
Seeking second opinion is a part of right to choice of the patient. If the patient chooses to know the opinion of another doctor whether through telemedicine or in person, their current doctor or telemedicine platform must facilitate such move by providing them with all their related health records and information without delay or extra cost.
H. Right to Choose Alternative Treatment Options if available
Patients have the right to choose alternative treatments, remote monitoring methods, different system of medicine, different doctors, different hospital or tele-health platform, alternate tele-patient management etc. Provided it does not put their health at risk.
I. Right to Transparency in Rates
Telemedicine platforms who charge fees must list the types of services, facilities, diagnostic services offered by them with price. If they have the policy of fixed consultation doctor fee that must also be listed. These must be prominently displayed on their websites or app bio so that the patients need not play the guessing game during the treatment. At the end of the treatment the patients has the right to receive an itemized bill. In free telemedicine platforms like e-sanjeevani the patients must be made aware of their right to receive free consultation and medicines. Telemedicine platforms attached with e-pharmacies must not sell drugs, especially essential medicines23 or medical apparatus at a higher rate than the prices fixed by National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA)
J. Right to choose source for obtaining medicines or tests
Choosing the pharmacy or e-pharmacy to purchase medicines or laboratory for doing diagnostics tests is completely the right of the patients and a particular entity or company cannot be fixed or forced upon them by the doctors or telemedicine platforms. The TmSP must keep their app interoperable to be able to receive, process and save digital reports and images from any lab for the perusal of the doctors.
K. Right to Non-discrimination
Neither doctors, nor the telemedicine platforms shall discriminate the patient and refuse service based on their illness. According to Article 15 there must be no discrimination in providing medical treatment based on religion, ethnicity, age, gender, language, caste, geographical location or sexual orientation.
L. Right to Safety and Quality Care
In telemedicine the safety must be two faceted i.e. bodily safety and cyber safety. Quality healthcare must be provided by a skilled doctor in a professional manner with ethics at par with traditional medicine. If they fail to do so they may be sued under the Consumer protection Act for medical negligence24.
To safeguard the digital safety of patients the TmSP and doctors must ensure the cyber security of the telemedicine platform or messaging apps respectively. The patients must be safeguarded from cybercrimes perpetrated by outsiders or even the doctors. Tele-patients are vulnerable to health data theft, identity theft, leakage or unauthorised access of their sensitive videos and pictures taken during consultation, morphed images used to blackmail, extort and harass them, especially women patients25.
To increase trust of patients in telemedicine this issue must be addressed and health-oriented cybersecurity must be fortified, protecting the patients from negligent actions of TmSP, accidental or intention cybercrimes by the doctors or third-party cybercriminal attacks.
M. Right to proper Referral and Transfer
Patient referral or transfer happens in three cases. First is when the doctor refers them to a specialist like tele-radiologist, tele-pathologist etc., for the best interest and holistic care of the patient. Second is by the patient, when they chose to change the tele-doctor due to dissatisfied service or choosing another doctor. The third is when a doctor decides to terminate treating the patient. Any such referral or transfer or discontinuation must be done with proper justification solely for the patient welfare and not for any commission, kickback or profit.
N. Right to Patient Education
It’s the right of the tele-patient to be educated on their health condition, the appropriate care, their rights and how to exercise them, their responsibilities, entitlements, grievance redressal Mechanisms etc. All these must be either orally informed by the doctor or prominently displayed in the app or web page in simple and easily understandable form.
O. Right to be Heard and Seek Redressal
Tele-patients and their care givers have the right to give feedback about the treatment and platforms service delivery. In case of any deficiency in either of the above they have the right to lodge complaint. The TM platform must have an internal grievance redressal mechanism with a designated official, and an acknowledgement and tracking system to ensure prompt resolution of complaint. If the patients are not satisfied with the resolution, they can approach external grievance redressal agencies, tribunals, civil courts or consumer forums under the consumer protection act 2019 to uphold their rights. In case of criminal negligence. criminal justice administration can be approached. Though proving criminal negligence in telemedicine is not easy because of the high standard of proof set in the Jacob Mathews v. State of Punjab26 case to establish gross negligence for the doctor to be liable.
IS THE TELEMEDICINE GUIDELINES, 2020 EFFECTIVE IN GUARANTEEING THE PATIENT RIGHTS?
The Telemedicine guidelines are mere instructions for registered medical practitioners. It urges them to uphold the same standards of duty in telemedicine as akin to traditional medicine practice. On the positive side, the guidelines lays emphasis on patient consent, data privacy, medical ethics, informed consent etc.
But the telemedicine guidelines are lacking because they do not cover major aspects like cross border telemedicine, cybercrimes and cyber security aspects of telemedicine, data breach, violation of patient privacy, victim compensation, fixing liability (tortious/ vicarious) on the doctor and telemedicine platforms, change in scope of medical negligence in telemedicine, remote patient monitoring etc.
The guidelines are vague in mentioning that any doctors violating ethical provisions will be penalised by existing laws. Which raises the question whether the penalty is only for violation of that provision or for the entire guidelines. Also since these are mere guidelines are these penalties legally enforceable. If that question is answered positively, the penal provisions are split across multiple laws and rules like Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, Information Technology Act, 2000, Consumer Protection Act, 2019, Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, etc Doctors will not research all provisions and know what not to do. In my opinion the TM guidelines is a toothless tiger that gives free rein to the doctors and is not patient centric, which will not pave way for protecting the rights of patients in telemedicine.
ANALYSING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CURRENT LAWS IN GUARANTEEING PATIENT RIGHTS IN TELEMEDICINE
A. Indian Penal Code/ Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita
The erstwhile IPC section 304B penalised criminal negligence while the new BNS section explicitly fixes penalty for medical negligence as 2 years imprisonment with fine.
B. Information Technology Act
The IT Act Section 66E penalizes anyone who violates the privacy of others with imprisonment of up to three years with two lakh fine. section 43 imposes fines for many offences like unauthorized access to data, data leakage, alteration or deletion of data from a computer system or network. These provisions can be invoked to penalize cybercrimes against medical systems. Section 66C penalizes identity theft with and can be invoked if patient details are stolen and misused and section 66D penalizes impersonation with imprisonment of up to three years with one lakh fine and can be invoked if any person misrepresents himself as a doctor in the tele-consultation. Section 72 penalizes telemedicine service providers which are intermediaries if they breach the confidentiality and privacy of the patient’s with imprisonment of up to two years with one lakh fine section 79 provides the telemedicine service providers safe harbour from such liabilities provided they fulfilled the relevant conditions.
C. Digital Personal Data Protection Act
Tele-Patients fall under the definition of data principles under Section 2(j) and telemedicine service providers are data fiduciaries as defined in Section 2(i).
Sections 5 and 6 talks about getting explicit written consent from patients before their data is collected for processing. Section 9 states that data of a minor child can only be processed with the consent of their guardian but the draft DPDP Rules, 2025 says that this rule doesn’t apply to the healthcare sector. Section 11 to 14 defines rights of the data principles in this case the patients. According to Sections 11 patients have rights to receive the summary of their data that is being processed, and to whom it’s shared. Section 12 provides them right to correct update or erase their health data.
Section 13 talks about right to grievance redressal and section 14 gives the patients’ rights to nominate legal representatives to exercise their rights after their death.
As per Section 33 if the TmSP didn’t take reasonable safeguard to protect the patient’s data or prevent the data breach they can be penalised with fines of up to Rs. 250 Crore. If the TmSP failed to notify the data principle of the data protection board about the breach, they will be penalised with up to 200 Crore.
D. Consumer Protection Act
Section 2(16) of the COPRA defines e-commerce as the buying and selling of good and services over digital network, thus Telemedicine will fall under this definition. Patients will fall under the definition of consumers under section 2(7) (ii) since they hire service for
consideration. Thus there is no doubt the COPRA also applies to telemedicine patients.
Section 2(9) defines consumer rights, that includes right to be informed about quality and standards of services with prices, right to be heard so that consumer interest is upheld in a legal forum, right to seek redressal against exploitation of their rights and right to consumer awareness all these will extend to tele-patients also.
There are three main authorities under the act:
• The Central Consumer Protection Authority regulates matters on consumer rights and promotes them. They also conduct investigations and protect consumer rights.
• The Consumer Dispute Redressal Commission operated in district, state and national level to hear and redress consumer disputes swiftly.
• Consumer Protection Council also operates in district, state and national level as advisory body to promote consumer interest.
The new COPRA provides for e-filling of complaints, online dispute resolution, process and mediation, thereby empowering consumers to get easy cheap and fast justice.
Since telemedicine service provider is an ecommerce entity, they have to follow the duties under Rule 4 of the Consumer Protection e-commerce Rules 2020.
They have to establish a grievance redressal mechanism with a grievance officer with his contact details prominently displayed. The complaint must be redressed within 1 month. They must record explicit consent from patients and not use pre-ticked checkboxes to record
consent automatically. They should not manipulate the prices in the platform to gain unreasonable profits.
Rule 5 states that as a market place ecommerce entity, the TMSP can only avail exception under section 79 of the IT Act and IT Intermediary guidelines, 2011 if they ensure the description, image, content etc. related to the doctor, their skills and qualification as represented in their app is accurate to the service.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR STRONGER PROTECTION OF PATIENT RIGHTS IN INDIA
The existing regulations do cover multifarious facets of patient protections and rights in India but the effectiveness of them is highly questionable. The patients’ rights charter is not legally enforceable in many states unless they decides to make an Act like Rajasthan did. Thus the major source of legal remedy is the Consumer Protection Act. Though it has been fairly successful in getting compensation for traditional patients, its effectiveness in providing remedy in case of telemedicine is still untested.
Indian laws and judicial stands tend to favour the doctors and hospitals more for the simple fact that they need to be empowered to give treatment without the fear of being of penalised or arrested for every mistakes or negligence. It is also needed to ensure them that they will not be held liable for saving lives in emergency situations. But the situation provides for an imbalance where the patients are not given enough protection to safeguard their rights from being violated.
In my opinion the scales of justice must be balanced and the patients must be fortified with legally enforceable rights and remedies to counteract the strong legal protection the doctors are provided. For which I suggest a consolidated legislation combining the digital protection offered in the IT Act, DPDP Act their rules along with the medical protection provided in the patients’ rights charter, Telemedicine Guidelines and Medical Ethics Code, 2002 to provide a holistic legal medium for patients to enforce their rights without fear of exploitation.
CONCLUSION
Telemedicine is there to stay. The past decade saw the emergence of many telemedicine platforms that saves people time energy and get medical care from anyplace . Both the people and the medical community have embraced the telemedicine in various forms. But the same is not properly regulated in my opinion, because the Telemedicine Guidelines only provide guidelines for the medical practitioners. It doesn’t concentrate of safeguarding the patients, tear rights and providing with remedy or compensation in case of violation. Additionally, the involvement of digital element in healthcare poses a danger of its own making patients, health data and healthcare infrastructure vulnerable to attack by cyber criminals. There has been multiple data breach incidents related to health care like the AIIMS ransomware attack, 2022, ICMR data breach 2023, Change healthcare ransomware attack 2024, Medibank data breach case 2022, sun pharma data leakage27, etc, which have made the population vulnerable to identity theft, potential bio-warfare, financial frauds, etc. It is the duty of the governments to provide the people the care they deserve and uplift the vulnerable. Thus Codifying the rights of tele-patients will ensures same standards of rights is given to all patients irrespective of their financial, communal, gender or regional differences. It will ensure that the same level of care provided to traditional patients is extended to tele-patients also, as right to heath under Article 21 holds true online also.
This will also ensure both private and government telemedicine services providers, all their health care workers, support staffs strive to provide quality healthcare while respecting patient rights. All of this will remove the fears in the minds of people, allowing them to embrace telemedicine as a medium of healthcare with confidence, which will aid India achieve its goals under Digital India, National Digital Health Mission and Sustainable Development Goals. With most countries lacking legislations on telemedicine India can become a pioneer and world leader in providing holistic legal protections to patients in telemedicine.
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Footnotes
1. Seewon Ryu, “History of telemedicine: evolution, context, and transformation.” Healthcare Informatics Research 65 (2010).
2. Esanjeevani, available at https://www.digitalindia.gov.in/initiative/esanjeevani/ (last visited on Jan 31, 2026).
3. Esanjeevani, https://esanjeevani.mohfw.gov.in/#/ (last visited on Feb 11, 2026).
4. Dr. S.R. Myneni, Health Law- medical law & medical jurisprudence (new era law publications, 2nd edn., 2024).
5. (AIR 1997 SC 1225).
6. AIR 1996 SC 2426).
7. (AIR 1989 SC 2039).
8. Like United Nations’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948.
9. Public health, sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries are included as Entry 6 in List II (State List) of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution of India.
10. (Act No. 7 of 2023).
11. Article 47- Duty of the State to raise the level of nutrition, standard of living and improve public health.
12. Rajasthan Right to Health Act, 2022, available at https://prsindia.org/files/bills_acts/acts_states/rajasthan /2023/Act7of2023Rajasthan.pdf (last visited on Feb 11, 2026).
13. The four principles of medical ethics, available at https://www.medicalprotection.org/uk/learning-from-cases-guides/essential-learning-law-and-ethics (last visited Feb 7, 2026).
14. As declared in the Anuradha Bhasin v. Union of India (2020) 3 SCC 637.
15. Ashwani Dubey and Anushka Sinha, “Navigating the Digital Divide in India: A Comprehensive Guide” 12 Humanities & Social Sciences Reviews 16 (2024).
16. Mason Stoltzfus et al., “The role of telemedicine in healthcare: an overview and update,” 35 The Egyptian Journal of Internal Medicine 49 (2023).
17. The advice provided may differ from doctor to doctor and that doesn’t reflect the quality of service provided by the doctor. Difference in medical opinions is accepted by law.
18. Recommendations On Electronic Medical Records Standards in India, available at https://www.mohfw.gov. in/sites/default/files/24539108839988920051EHR%20Standards-v5%20Apr%202013.pdf (Last visited on Feb 9, 2026).
19. Giulio Nittari et al., “Telemedicine Practice: Review of the Current Ethical and Legal Challenges,” 26 Telemedicine and e-Health 1427–37 (2020).
20. Inflight Emergency Telemedicine, available at https://www.aircareinternational.com/inflight-emergency-telemedicine (Last visited on Feb 9, 2026).
21. AIR 2017 SC 4161.
22. AIR 1999 SC 495.
23. National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM), 2022 in the First Schedule of Drugs (Prices Control) Order (DPCO) 2013.
24. Savita K, “Telemedicine And Consumer Protection Ensuring Patient Privacy and Safety in A Digital Healthcare Landscape” 14 Journal of Neonatal Surgery 106 (2025).
25. Telemedicine Security: Patient Data Protection Requirements, available at https://codesecure.in/ blogs/telemedicine-security-patient-data-protection-requirements/ (last visited on Feb 4, 2026).
26. (2005) 6 SCC 1.
27. Healthcare Data Breach Statistics, available at https://www.hipaajournal.com/healthcare-data-breach-statistics/ (last visited on Feb 11, 2026).