A Public Interest Litigation is filed in the Supreme Court of India seeking directions to the Government of India, all the State Governments, all the Union Territory Governments and other concerned authorities to take immediate steps to relax / reduce non-covid-19 related medical healthcare treatment services at all public hospitals.
The petition is being filed by the Sourjya Das (petitioner in person) who is an Advocate and a member of Calcutta High Court Bar Association. The petitioner is also a freelance editor / columnist and provides pro-bono legal services to various ethnic communities or tribes across India and to financially weak citizens of India.
The petition states that the restrictions imposed on public life by the Government following the COVID-19 outbreak has hampered public life in such a way that the public does not know when things will get back to normal or when offices, shops and usual means of income would resume, thus financially empowering members of the public on a daily basis. It is necessary to consider that at such times, numerous members of the public will require non-covid-19 / non- coronavirus related medical treatment services like chemotherapy, emergency transplants, colonoscopy, various tests and other various prescribed medical treatments which are of immediate necessity to sustain the life of a member of the public.
An indefinite halt in means of livelihood and income of people it is necessary that the Government must reduce or relax the non-Covid-19 / non-coronavirus related medical treatment expenses. And, till date, no specific circular / direction / order has been passed by respondents with regards to relaxation / reduction of non-Covid-19 / non-coronavirus related medical treatment fees / expenses incurred by patients at public or private hospitals, irrespective of empanelment of such hospital under any scheme / policy or any insurance policy / healthcare benefit scheme made available by the Government or any private body / organization.
The petition is preferred on the ground that due to omission of the Governments, numerous families of unsecured members of the public who are self-employed, presently unemployed or private professionals are not earning at all during this outbreak shall face acute financial crisis. It is the duty of the Government to ensure that private hospitals, who generally charge in higher figures in healthcare charges than public / government hospitals, to not exploit people and to take steps to ensure that the patients do not suffer a financial crisis by paying bills which are unchanged by the prevailing circumstances.
-India Legal Bureau