A Bombay High Court order from October 2020 cancelled Maharashtra Government’s notifications to regulate pricing for non-COVID ailments at private hospitals and nursing homes. The Supreme Court has now refused to intervene in the order passed by the Bombay HC.
The Supreme Court bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and M R Shah said that the court will not interfere in the matter as the State Government cannot implement such notifications.
Counsel for the Maharashtra Government, Rahul Chitnis said during the initial proceedings that the state filed an appeal against the Bombay HC order dated October 23, 2020, which nullified the state’s notifications pertaining to price capping.
In response, the Supreme Court bench said that the state may not pass such notifications when the state doesn’t have adequate facilities to treat non-COVID patients at government/civic hospitals. “Non-Covid patients are bound to move to private hospitals when you don't have necessary infrastructure. Sorry, we will not interfere,” the bench said.
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The Bombay High Court’s Nagpur bench said in October 2020 that the State Government does not possess powers to frame laws or issue notifications that regulate the pricing set by private hospitals and nursing homes for non-COVID patients.
The court added that the state’s notifications are “clearly an encroachment over the fundamental rights of the petitioner under Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution of India to practise any profession.”
The bench went on to say that the rules specified in the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and Covid Regulations do not allow the government to pass directives regarding the treatment of non-COVID patients at private nursing homes and hospitals.
The state’s notifications were challenged through petitions filed by the Hospitals' Association of Nagpur and Dr Pradeep Arora. The Bombay High Court quashed the state’s notifications after going through these petitions.
These petitions said that the rates prescribed by the state government were unreasonably low and that the prices set for non-COVID patients cannot be justified. The state strongly opposed the petitions citing the ongoing health emergency across the country brought on by COVID-19.
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