Vicarious liability in medical negligence is a growing concept in India and most of the jurisprudence for the same comes from either older United Kingdom cases or the cases of the different State Supreme Courts in the United States of America. As more cases of medical injuries come before the Indian courts, the judiciary is often helpless to tackle the same in the light of lack of proper legislations as well as jurisprudence in this regard. Through this paper, we will attempt to understand the basic and relevant terms such as medical negligence; vicarious liability; duty of care; et al. that will help us understand the nuances of this topic better. This research paper will analyse the meaning of medical negligence and vicarious liability independently in brief and focus on what vicarious liability means in terms of medical negligence. Furthermore, this paper will dwell into the various doctrines related to vicarious liability in medical negligence cases that have developed in courts in different jurisdictions over the years. For a better understanding of the topic, we will look at the position of vicarious liability in medical negligence in other jurisdictions, namely the United States of America and South Africa before we study the relevant case laws in India that have developed whatever little jurisprudence that exists in India.
