High Court: Give list of hospitals that got cheap land

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Thursday asked the Centre to furnish a list of various private hospitals built on land allocated by the government athighly subsidized rates.
A bench of Justices S Ravindra Bhat and G P Mittal sought the list on a plea to launch contempt proceedings against the private hospitals for defying an earlier court order to provide freebedsto poor patients andextend them free indoor medical treatment.This was the condition on which the land had been subsidized and made available tothem,the plea contended.
The court gave the Centre three weeks to file the list, slating the next hearing for August 25.The plea to initiate the contempt of court proceedings was filed by Social Jurist, an NGO, which alleged three hospitals had failed to comply with the high court’s March 2007 order. The court stipulated the hospitals which had got government land at subsidized prices, would provide free medical treatment tothe poor and reserve 10%beds for outdoor patients and 25% for indoor patients.
The NGO’s counsel, Ashok Aggarwal, allegedsome reputed hospitals had failed to comply withthecourt'searlier order.Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Hospital, St Stephens Hospital and Moolchand Hospital have claimed no such condition was attached to the land given to them. Last month, the SC had slammed private hospitals for refusing free beds to poor patients and remarked that “poor are unwelcome” in these hospitals. Under law, the hospitals are obliged to provide 25% free treatment in OPD and 10%freebedsin IPD.