Cross-State Telemedicine Licensing And Data Privacy In India
- IJLLR Journal
- Feb 4
- 1 min read
Ashmit Chauhan, National Law Institute University
Aryan Pundir, National Law Institute University
Vismaya Tulsian, National Law Institute University
ABSTRACT
Telemedicine has moved from the periphery of healthcare delivery in India to its institutional core. What began as an emergency response during the COVID-19 pandemic has now crystallised into a routine mode of medical consultation, diagnosis, and follow-up care, particularly for populations located far from tertiary healthcare facilities. Yet, the legal framework governing telemedicine remains tethered to territorially bounded regulatory paradigms that were designed for a pre-digital era. This paper examines the constitutional, regulatory, and data protection challenges posed by cross- state telemedicine in India. It argues that the existing framework the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, 2020 and the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 fail to adequately resolve jurisdictional uncertainty, professional accountability, and health data governance in interstate teleconsultations. Drawing upon Indian Supreme Court jurisprudence on proportionality, professional regulation, privacy, and cooperative federalism, alongside comparative federal models from the United States, European Union, Canada, and China, the paper proposes an integrated institutional reform framework. This framework comprises a National Telemedicine Registry under the National Medical Commission, sector-specific health data governance rules under the DPDP Act, and specialised adjudicatory mechanisms for interstate telemedicine disputes. The paper contends that such coordinated institutional reform is essential to realise telemedicine’s constitutional promise under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India.
