Bombay High Court has fined a petitioner Rs 5 lakh who has sought 100% free treatment of the COVID-19 patients. The court has considered the petition “preposterous”. The petitioner is provided with a time frame of 1 month to pay the amount to Maharashtra.
A 42-year educationist and social worker, Sagar Jondhale has filed a PIL before Bombay High court to direct the Maharashtra state to treat all the COVID-19 patients for free. He stated in the petition that private hospitals used to charge exorbitantly for the treatment. He further added that the state has failed to live up to the people’s expectations in this devastating COVID-crisis.
In response to that, the court said that state-run hospitals are performing the treatments mostly for free. The court further added that only the private hospitals are charging the patients and there is no compulsion on any citizen to take treatment from the private facilities. “The petitioner has failed to demonstrate infringement of any fundamental right or abrogation of any statutory provisions by the state,” said the Bombay HC bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice KK Tated.
The court had directed the petitioner to pay the amount Rs 5 lakh within a month so that the state can use this money for relief activities to ameliorate the plight of people in these difficult times. If the petitioner will fail to pay this exemplary cost, the state will recover it from him as arrears of land revenues.
