By: Express News Service Written by Express News Service Chandigarh | November 16, 2025 10:53 AM IST 2 min readOn the evening of December 15, 2020, Rajni’s husband received multiple calls from the Chandigarh and Panchkula DC offices informing that the same lab had reported her Covid-19 positive. (Photo: Jaspreet)The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission, Chandigarh, has directed a diagnostic laboratory to pay Rs 25,000 as compensation and litigation costs to the complainant for uploading incorrect Covid-19 test results on the ICMR portal. The complainant, Rajni Thareja, is a Panchkula resident.Rajni underwent an RT-PCR test at a Chandigarh-based laboratory, Atulaya Healthcare, on December 13, 2020 and paid Rs 900, after which she left for Mussoorie. Her test report, which was issued on December 14, 2020, had declared her Covid-19 negative.However, on the evening of December 15, 2020, Rajni’s husband received multiple calls from the Chandigarh and Panchkula DC offices informing that the same lab had reported her Covid-19 positive. The complainant alleged that the ‘erroneous’ report led to severe mental agony, humiliation and business loss. In Mussoorie, she was isolated by fellow travelers and denied accommodation by hotel management due to the incorrect data entry.Rajni, who runs educational institutions, claimed that her professional and social image was also tarnished. She sought compensation of Rs 19.5 lakh for the physical, mental and financial suffering caused by the laboratory’s negligence.The healthcare laboratory, in its defence, admitted that the complainant’s report was indeed negative. The result that was uploaded as positive on the ICMR portal was a clerical mistake. The laboratory also said that they corrected the error immediately. Later on December 16, the lab sent an email to the online portal to amend the mistake. The lab also claimed that no harm was caused as the correction was made promptly.However, the redressal body rejected this defence, observing that the lab failed to produce any proof regarding the correction sent to ICMR. It also noted that the lab never informed the complainant directly about the so-called error.The Commission held that the “deficiency in service” was well established, as the admitted error caused “great mental shock, harassment, and ambiguity” to the complainant. It further remarked that during the Covid-19 pandemic, being wrongly labeled positive carried serious social and psychological repercussions.Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram© The Indian Express Pvt LtdTags:chandigarhCOVID-19