The Gauhati High Court disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the respondents to issue an order regulating and capping the private hospital fees for treatment of Covid-19 patients with immediate effect.
The PIL has been filed by Advocates Association for Indigenous rights of Assamese and one other, and has prayed for the following reliefs:
“i. Direct the Respondents to issue appropriate notification/order/direction regulating and capping the private hospital fees for treatment of Covid-19 patients with immediate effect.
ii. Direct the Respondents to develop an Online Portal as well as a helpline number which keeps the public updated and informed on day to day basis about the number of available beds in isolation ward, beds with oxygen, ICU beds with/without Ventilators in every Government and private hospitals along with the contact numbers of the said hospitals.
iii. Direct the respondents to give free oximeter to each and every covid patient opting for home isolation.
iv. Direct the Respondents to regulate the pricing of the Oximeter, Oxygen Concentrator etc and to make the same available in the market in original price and to take strict measures against black marketing of such products.”
At the outset, the Division Bench of Chief Justice R.M. Chhaya and Justice Soumitra Saikia noted that the petition was filed in May 2021 when the country was passing through the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.
K.K. Mahanta, the counsel for the petitioners, has relied upon the data available from other places including Mumbai, Gujarat, Ghaziabad and other parts of the country. Mahanta has also relied upon the order dated 14.05.2020 passed by the Division Bench of the High Court of Gujarat in R/Writ Petition (PIL) No. 42/2020.
“The circumstances which existed in the months of March to June 2020 and in 2021 have fortunately not continued,” said the Court.
An affidavit had been filed by the State of Assam on 11.06.2021 wherein certain details of the steps taken by the State of Assam were brought on record. The record indicates that subsequently a consolidated affidavit was filed on 16.06.2021 enumerating the steps taken by the State of Assam. Similar affidavits had also been filed on 27.07.2021, 20.08.2021, 20.09.2021, 03.01.2022 and the last of such affidavit was filed on 12.08.2022, wherein the State of Assam through the Joint Secretary, Department of Health & Family Welfare has brought on record district-wise break up of medical facilities available in Government hospitals as well as in the medical colleges of Assam as on 09.08.2022.
The counsel for the petitioners, however, has submitted that in few of the districts medical facilities are either required to be created or augmented.
D. Saikia, Advocate General, Assam, has pointed out that in eight places, medical college hospitals are there with all facilities for treatment of Covid-19 patients. The Advocate General further pointed out that at some places ICU Beds are not available, more particularly, in the district hospitals where revenue districts have been carved out very recently. The Advocate General has submitted that the Government is in the process of creating such facilities in each and every district as enumerated in the affidavit dated 12.08.2022.
The counsel for the petitioners has further submitted that appropriate directions be issued to the State Government to see that all facilities for treatment of Covid-19 patients are created in all districts, may be in a phase-wise manner within a stipulated time.
Having heard the learned counsels for the parties, the Bench noted that at eight places i.e., Dibrugarh, Guwahati, Silchar, Jorhat, Barpeta, Tezpur, Diphu and Lakhimpur, medical colleges and attached hospitals thereto are available wherein there are facilities of ICU Beds, Oxygen Beds and Ventilator Beds as indicated in the affidavit dated 12.08.2022.
The Bench observed that counsel for the petitioners is correct in asserting before us that in some districts facilities do not exist. Even considering the reply given by the Advocate General, it is incumbent upon the State Government to create similar facilities of ICU beds, oxygen beds and ventilator beds even at district hospitals, may be in a phase wise manner.
As assured by the Advocate General, Assam, the State Government shall endeavour to create such facilities in each of the 34 districts and more particularly in the districts where medical colleges have not been established and even in new districts which, according to the Advocate General, have been created recently, the Court further observed.
We hope and trust that the Government shall take the same on a serious note and create all medical facilities for complete treatment of Covid-19 patients in those districts which form a part of the affidavit dated 12.08.2022, latest by 31.03.2023, with the aforesaid observations, the Court disposed the PIL.