The Single Judge Bench of the Kerala High Court, comprising Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan in the case of Accredited Molecular Testing Laboratories v. State of Kerala has referred the matter to the Division bench regarding fixation of RT PCR rates in Private Laboratories throughout the state of Kerala.
Reasoning and Decision of the Court
The Court made its reliance on the judgment of Devi Scans (P) Ltd. v. State of Kerala [2022 (1) KLT 476]. The Court expounded that after considering the provisions of the Travancore Cochin Public Health Act, 1955, the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, Disaster Management Act, 2005 and also the Kerala Epidemic Diseases Ordinance, 2020 concluded that none of the statutory provisions relied on by the State authorises to issue an order controlling the rate at which the private laboratories should carry out the RT-PCR tests.
The Bench after considering the facts of the case presented before it held that some of the petitioners in these cases itself quoted reduced rate for RT-PCR tests. In such situation, according to me, a detailed consideration of these aspects by a Division Bench is necessary, especially about the source of power of the State Government to regulate the price of RT-PCR tests.
Therefore, the Bench order the Registry to place these cases before the Hon'ble Chief Justice for appropriate orders, in accordance to law.
Case Details
Case: - WP(C) NO. 25046 OF 2021(E)
Petitioner: - Accredited Molecular Testing Laboratories
Respondent: - State of Kerala
Judge: Justice P. V. Kunhikrishnan
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