On Monday, Supreme Court amended its verdict delivered that has directed private laboratories to offer free Covid-19 testing to everyone.
Apex Court Bench comprising Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice S Ravindra Bhat issued fresh direction that only people who could not afford Rs 4,500 for the test should be tested free by private laboratories. People eligible under the Ayushman Bharat scheme wouldn’t have to pay for it.
Apex Court stated that,"The order dated 08.04.2020 intended to make testing in private Labs of COVID-19 free for economically weaker sections of the society who were unable to afford the payment of testing fee as fixed by ICMR for COVID-19. Order was never intended to make testing free for those who can afford the payment of testing fee fixed by the ICMR for COVID-19".
Bench asked Centre to notify other categories of economically weaker sections who could be tested without a charge.
SC Bench stated that,"The government.... may consider as to whether any other categories of weaker sections of the society e.g. workers belonging to low income groups in the informal sectors, beneficiaries of Direct Benefit Transfer, etc, apart from those covered under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Aroogya Yojana are also eligible for the benefit of free testing and issue appropriate guidelines in the above regard also within a period of one week”.
Bench further stated that in either cases, the private laboratories may not have to bear the financial burden of the free testing. It allowed the government to come out with guidelines to reimburse the expenditure incurred by private labs on free tests.
On April 8, the judges had ordered free tests on a petition filed by a lawyer Shashank Deo Sudhi, who had underlined that people were forced to turn to private laboratories because government hospitals were packed to capacity.
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