The Gauhati High Court recently closed a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) related to health services in different community health centres.
The PILs dealt with lacunae in community health centres (CHCs) in three districts. The state government’s counter-affidavit rebutted the averments made by the petitioners.
The Division Bench of Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia found that although some measures have been taken by the State, the Bench does accept that health services need to be improved further.
Moreover, these petitions pertain to 2017 and 2018, respectively. The State of Assam has already gone through two years of pandemic where a lot of new measures have been taken by the State, the Court observed.
“We say this as we have been dealing with these matters in different PILs. This problem therefore needs to be seen from the present perspective. Therefore, we presently close these petitions with the liberty to the petitioners to place their grievance before the Government through its Secretary, Health Department”
-the order reads.
The Bench clarified that the present closure of these petitions will not prejudice the case of the petitioners should they come up before the High Court again in case their grievances are not met by the State.