Special Categories of Consumer Disputes: The Sectors Before the Commissions

Consumer law is general, but its docket is sectoral: the misdiagnosis, the repudiated policy, the debited account, the undelivered flat, the cancelled flight. Each sector has its own jurisprudence, when its transactions are 'service', what deficiency means there, and which special statute runs alongside. This note maps the ten recurring categories; the major ones, medical, insurance, banking, housing, receive their own detailed notes.

1. Medical Services

Medical treatment for consideration is service, settled in Indian Medical Association v. V.P. Shantha, (1995) 6 SCC 651: the paying patient is a consumer, the wholly free hospital alone is outside, and where an institution charges some patients, even its free patients are beneficiaries within the definition. Liability is for medical negligence on the Bolam standard as adopted in Jacob Mathew v. State of Punjab, (2005) 6 SCC 1, the ordinary competent practitioner's care, not the highest skill, with informed consent (Samira Kohli) and res ipsa loquitur for the speaking facts. The 2019 Act's omission of 'health care' from the service illustration changed nothing: the definition remains inclusive and the Shantha line holds. Detailed in Topic 94.

2. Insurance, Banking and Financial Services

Insurance is enumerated in Section 2(42), and its litigation is the law of claim settlement: repudiation only on material, communicated grounds (Modern Insulators: an exclusion never supplied does not bind), breach of condition must be germane to the loss (National Insurance v. Nitin Khandelwal), technical delays in intimation do not defeat genuine claims (Gurshinder Singh), and the surveyor's report is evidence, not gospel. Banking is equally enumerated: wrongful debits and unauthorised transactions (with the RBI's zero-liability framework), dishonour of instruments despite funds, locker negligence (Amitabha Dasgupta), and recovery-agent excesses are the staple deficiencies, while purely commercial borrowings meet the commercial-purpose exclusion. Detailed in Topics 95 and 96.

3. Housing, Construction and Real Estate

Housing construction is service by express enumeration, and the builder-buyer docket is the Commissions' largest: delayed possession as deficiency with refund or possession-plus- compensation (Pioneer Urban v. Govindan Raghavan; Arifur Rahman Khan), one-sided agreements as unfair contracts, and defective construction as deficiency. RERA runs concurrently: Imperia Structures v. Anil Patni, (2020) 10 SCC 783, and the Experion line hold the remedies additional, the allottee chooses the forum. Detailed in Topic 97.

4. Education, Legal Services and the Professions

• Education: the core academic function sits outside: statutory examination boards performing their duties are not service providers (Bihar School Examination Board, (2009) 8 SCC 483), and the conduct of examinations, evaluation and award of degrees is not 'service' (Maharshi Dayanand University v. Surjeet Kaur). But the commercial penumbra is within: coaching institutes, fee retention against the refund rules, false prospectus claims (Buddhist Mission Dental College) and deficient promised facilities are consumer matters, the line runs between the sovereign-academic and the sold.
• Legal services: after three decades of assumption, the Supreme Court in Bar of Indian Lawyers v. D.K. Gandhi (2024) held that advocates are not covered by the Act: the advocate-client engagement is a contract of personal service, excluded from Section 2(42), professional misconduct belonging to the Bar Councils and negligence to the civil courts; the Court also doubted, and referred for reconsideration, the inclusion of professions as such.
• Other professions: the medical profession remains covered on the Shantha footing pending any larger-bench reconsideration; chartered accountants, architects and engineers are judged transaction by transaction on the same service/personal-service line.

5. Transport, Telecom and Electricity

• Transport and airlines: carriage of passengers and goods is service: flight cancellation and denied boarding, lost and damaged baggage (within the carriage statutes' liability limits), rail accidents and reservation failures, and courier and transporter negligence are deficiency claims, with the DGCA's refund and facilitation framework setting the airline floor.
• Telecom and internet: in Vodafone Idea Cellular Services v. Ajay Kumar Agarwal, (2022) 6 SCC 496, the Supreme Court overruled M. Krishnan: telecom disputes are maintainable before the Commissions, the arbitration provision of the Telegraph Act does not oust them, so billing, disconnection and service-quality grievances are ordinary deficiency claims beside TRAI's regulatory framework.
• Electricity: supply of electricity is within the Act, but U.P. Power Corporation v. Anis Ahmad, (2013) 8 SCC 491, drew the line: matters of unauthorised use and assessment under Sections 126 and 135 of the Electricity Act belong to that statute's machinery, while ordinary deficiencies, wrong billing outside assessment, delayed connection, negligent disconnection, faulty meters, remain consumer complaints.

6. Related Topics and Provisions

• Medical services and negligence (Topic 94): the Shantha and Jacob Mathew line in detail
• Insurance (Topic 95) and banking (Topic 96): the financial sectors in detail
• Housing and RERA (Topic 97): the builder-buyer docket in detail
• Service under Section 2(42) (Topic 11) and deficiency (Topic 14): the concepts every sector applies