The Supreme Court docket on Monday took severe exception to the Gujarat authorities giving hospitals and nursing properties working with out requisite hearth security clearance extra time to adjust to the norms and mentioned that it had already directed in December, 2020, that fireplace audits be performed in hospitals and deficiencies rectified.
A bench of Justices D Y Chandradchud and M R Shah mentioned that “as soon as there’s a mandamus of the Court docket, it’s nicely settled that it can’t be overridden, and fewer so by an govt notification”.
“You may’t, by an govt notification, nullify a course of the Supreme Court docket like this”, mentioned Justice Chandrachud.
The courtroom was referring to a July 8, 2021 notification of the Gujarat City Growth and City Housing Division, giving hospitals and nursing properties time until the top of June 2022 to adjust to the norms.
The courtroom mentioned the order was tantamount to saying these hospitals is not going to should adjust to the order until the given time when the courtroom had in December final 12 months requested Covid care hospitals that had not obtained No Objection Certificates (NOCs) from the state hearth division to instantly apply for a similar.
“You’ve gotten been extending the deadline, which can’t be executed in view of our December 18, 2020 order”, the courtroom informed the Gujarat authorities counsel.
Justice Chandrachud remarked that “hospitals have turn into a big trade now primarily based on human misery. We can not enable them to prosper at the price of human lives. Let such hospitals not function in buildings with 4 rooms. Let such hospitals be closed and permit the state to create higher well being care services”.
“Let not the impression go that the state is shielding such hospitals,” added Justice Shah.
The December 2018 course was issued within the wake of sufferers in blazes in hospitals in Rajkot and Ahmedabad. The bench had then identified that 16 notices have been despatched to a hospital in Rajkot however nothing got here out of it.
On Monday, the courtroom additionally questioned a report by a fee on the problem of fireplace security in hospitals being filed in a sealed cowl and mentioned “it’s not a nuclear secret however only a report. Why in a sealed cowl?”
