Shivani Pandey-
The Supreme Court bench comprising of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah mentioned that the court will not interfere in the matter.
Earlier a Bombay High Court order from October 2020 scrapped Maharashtra’s government notification to control pricing for non-COVID diseases at private hospitals and nursing homes. The supreme court at present has refused to interfere in the orders passed by the Bombay High Court.
The Maharashtra Government through its Counsel Advocate Rahul Chitnis stated that in the initial proceeding the state filed an appeal against the Bombay High Court order of 23rd October 2020 which annulled the state notification about price capping.
To which the Supreme Court bench replied, “Non-Covid patients are bound to move to private hospitals when they don’t have necessary Infrastructure. Sorry, we will not interfere.”
The court added that the state’s notifications are clearly an encroachment over the fundamental rights of the petitioner under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution of India to practice any profession.
The State’s notification was challenged in Petitions filed by The Hospital’s Association of Nagpur and Dr. Pradeep Arora. The petitioner stated that the rates formulated by the State Government were considerably low and the prices set for non-COVID patients cannot be justified. The state vehemently opposed the petitions mentioning the ongoing state emergency across the country in the wake of COVID-19.
The Bombay High Court quashed the state’s notification after going through the petition.
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