On Thursday, the High Court of Delhi sought a response from the Delhi Govt on a contempt application seeking initiation of proceedings against the latter's top officials & others for alleged non-compliance with an order to take action and regulate online pathological labs.
A single-Judge bench of Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva, after hearing the submissions, directed the Delhi Govt lawyer to take instruction as he submitted that the Clinical Establishment Act isn't applicable in Delhi.
The bench issued notice to the parties & listed it for further hearing on Jan 29, 2021.
Advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that the online aggregator like 'healthian' & '1 mg' are illegally operating in Delhi. He further submitted that these online aggregators are playing with the lives of the common people & must be banned.
The plea sought initiation of contempt proceedings against Delhi Chief Secretary, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Directors General of Health Service & Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for allegedly not complying with a court order to take action against illegal online health service aggregators operating in Delhi & to regulate online pathological labs.
The contempt plea, moved by one Rohit Jain, said that the respondent has completely failed to comply with the said order of this court by not taking appropriate legal actions against online health aggregators despite the direction.
The plea said that "The court had on August 6 directed the concerned respondent authorities to initiate action in accordance with law against any illegal online health service aggregators operating in Delhi in violation of the applicable law including the Clinical Establishment (Registration & Regulations) Act, 2010, if applicable, or in violation of any rules, regulations or Govt policies applicable to the facts of the case. Action will be initiated in accordance with law against such violators of the law as expeditiously as possible & practicable, after giving an adequate opportunity of being heard to the concerned parties".
The petition also alleged that the respondents are equally responsible for restraining the illegal practices of online aggregators which are freely being carried out under the eyes of these officials in utter violations of the rules & regulations laid down by statutes & the guidelines issued by the respondents from time to time ever since the outbreak of deadly COVID-19.
It also said that several illegal online aggregators are advertising freely by offering attractive packages for body check-ups including the test for COVID-19 through SMSs or various online modes & added that the petitioner has received advertisements of online aggregators through e-mail for getting tested.
The plea further alleged that the respondents' officials have been playing with the precious lives of the innocent people by promoting unqualified, unregistered medical practitioners to sign the pathological report & exposing the common people to the mercy of untrained & highly incompetent medical/ pathological professional.
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