Over Charging Of Covid Patients By Pvt Hospital: Supreme Court Issues Notice To Centre & States To Set Up Mechanism For Scrutinizing And Auditing Bills
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The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the UOI on a plea seeking directions to the Centre and the state governments to set up a mechanism for scrutinising and auditing the bills of Covid-19 patients who have complaints of being overcharged.The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud and B. V. Nagarathna noted that the petition which invokes the jurisdiction under Article 32 of the...
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The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the UOI on a plea seeking directions to the Centre and the state governments to set up a mechanism for scrutinising and auditing the bills of Covid-19 patients who have complaints of being overcharged.
The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud and B. V. Nagarathna noted that the petition which invokes the jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution has been filed in the public interest. "The specific aspect which is canvassed in the petition is that during the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, patients had to take recourse to seek medical facilities in private hospitals as a result of the inadequacy of the public health infrastructure and there were widespread complaints of over-charging of hapless patients. Families, including of those who did not survive the pandemic, have been brought to economic ruin, as a result", observed the bench.
"You have raised an important issue", Justice Chandrachud had told the advocate for the petitioner at the outset.
The bench recorded that the petitioner has relied upon certain instances where local bodies, such as the Pune Municipal Corporation, have issued notice to private hospitals for over-charging patients and ensured refund of excess amounts charged and that the petition seeks a writ of mandamus to the Centre and the State Governments to set up a mechanism for scrutinising and auditing the bills of Covid-19 patients who have complaints of being over-charged.
"The issue which has been raised in the petition concerns a wide strata of society consisting of patients and their relatives who have been over-charged during the Covid-19 pandemic and the issue which has been raised would merit serious attention", said the bench, issuing notice to the Union of India, with liberty to serve the Central Agency, in addition.
Noting that the cabinet secretary had been wrongfully made a respondent in the petition, the bench instead granted liberty to amend the cause title to delete the Cabinet Secretariat, so that the Union of India is represented through the Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Writ Petition(s)(Civil) No(s): 903/2021
Case Title: Abhinav Thapar v. Union of India And Anr.