Kashish Jain
Allahabad High Court has quashed the order of the Chief Medical Officer (Varanasi) who had restrained a private hospital from treating patients of Covid-19 based on the allegation that the hospital realized a higher amount than the prescribed amount from such a patient.
The Division Bench adjudicating such a matter comprised of Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Syed Aftab Rizvi. The Bench stated that such restrictions were unreasonable particularly considering the surge in numbers infected across Uttar Pradesh.
The Court has ordered,
“In government hospitals, adequate beds are not available to accommodate the Covid-19 patients for their treatment. The government itself is engaging various private nursing homes and hospitals for the treatment of Covid-19 patients. Under the circumstances, the impugned order does not appeal to reason that the petitioner’s hospital itself be restrained from giving treatment to Covid-19 patients, merely on the allegation of a patient that some excessive amount was charged by it from him. That apart the impugned order has been passed by respondent no.3 completely ignoring the explanation submitted by the petitioner. For all the reasons aforestated the impugned dated 11.12.2020 passed by the respondent no.3 cannot be sustained and is hereby quashed.”
The counsel for the petitioner has contended that the order passed by the Chief Medical Officer, the petitioner’s hospital was restrained for giving out treatment to Covid patients.
The Court noted that on August 22, 2020, a notice was issued by the Chief Medical Officer to the hospital asking for an explanation and the petitioner had submitted a detailed explanation. But the same was not taken into consideration by the respondent. The order stated,
“However, without considering the reply, the impugned order has been passed by the respondent no.3 even without recording that what amount has been found by him to have been charged excessively by the petitioner’s hospital from a Covid-19 patient.“ the order said.
The Court quashed the order of the CMO and granted liberty to a fresh authority to order again and per the law.