Yemen National Moves Delhi High Court Against Max Hospital Over Alleged Confiscation Of His Family's Passports

The family had approached the hospital for treatment of their infant son, suffering from Meningomyelocele (Spina Bifida), a birth defect affecting development of spinal cord. The family received a medical treatment visa of India and accordingly travelled to Delhi for their son's treatment.

The petitioner alleges that the respondent-hospital, under the pretext of treating his son, charged him exorbitant, without providing for any details of the medical treatment, medical bill and receipts/ invoices for the same. The petitioner further submitted that under the pretext of completing formalities for discharge of his infant son, he was asked to hand over his original passport, along with the passport of his wife and the infant child. However, later, when the petitioner requested the hospital to return the passports, he was asked to make the payment first. Eventually, while his passport was released, the hospital never returned the passports of the wife and the infant son, it is alleged.

This resulted in the petitioner reaching out to the Yemen Embassy with his grievances. As per the petitioner, the Embassy of Yemen sent a letter to the hospital stating that as per perfoma invoice, the estimated cost of treatment of the petitioner's son was around 7,000 to 7,500 USD but the petitioner had been charged double the said amount. The Embassy of Yemen also stated that it has received complaint against the hospital and the interpreter hired by the petitioner as he had not been given the patient report, bills of treatment, receipt of payment, etc. The embassy requested the hospital to handover the original passports of the infant patient and his mother to the petitioner immediately.

The petitioner submitted that despite the intervention by the Yemen Embassy, the hospital did not return the passports of his wife and child and thus, he and his family could not fly back to Yemen and the Return Tickets of 700 USD booked prior to coming to India got wasted. As such petitioner was compelled to extend his rental accommodation and to bear additional day to day expenses. After repeated attempts from the Embassy, the hospital handed over to petitioner the medical bills but the passports were never returned, the plea states.

The petitioner contended that while his wife and infant child are the citizens of Republic of Yemen, under Article 14 of the Constitution of India every person residing in India has a right to equality before the law and has equal protection of laws within the territory of India. Thus, he requested the court to provide protection and efficacious remedy to the petitioner and his family urgently.

The petitioner prayed the court to issue a writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to release the passports. He also prayed for the constitution of a Medical Board to ascertain the present medical condition of the infant child of the petitioner who was treated and operated twice by the hospital and whether correct line of treatment was provided to him. Additionally, the petitioner requested the court to investigate the alleged scam pulled by the respondent-hospital through which he was lured for the treatment of his infant child; and collect all documents pertaining to the treatment given to the infant child and money transactions between the petitioner and the hospital.

When the matter came up for hearing yesterday, the hospital claimed that it is not in possession of the said passports.

The matter will now be taken up on July 15.

CASE TITLE: MAHFOODH QASEM ALI AMER AL GARADI v. UNION OF INDIA

Click Here To Read Order