When Algorithms Kill Liability for AI Medical Misdiagnosis in India

The rapid integration of artificial intelligence into Indian healthcare has created an unprecedented liability vacuum-the complete absence of a legal framework governing responsibility when AI systems cause or contribute to medical misdiagnosis. This paper examines the structural inadequacy of India's existing legal instruments-the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 2023, the Consumer Protection Act 2019, the Information Technology Act 2000, and the Medical Devices Rules 2017-each of which presupposes a single identifiable human actor exercising negligent judgment, a model incompatible with the distributed nature of AI-assisted diagnosis. Through an analysis of landmark judgments including Jacob Mathew v State of Punjab (2005), Indian Medical.