The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday directed the State Government to commence construction of a new building for the Gastroenterology Sciences and Organ Transplantation Institute in the land identified on the premises of SDS Tuberculosis Research Centre and Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases, Benglauru.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj, passed the order while dismissing a PIL petition filed in 2017 by R. Chandrashekara, a former Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences and B. Rudrappa, a retired government doctor.
The petitioners had contended that construction of new building at the proposed land affected the fresh air required for the tuberculosis patients.
While observing that the petitioners have not placed any material in support of their contention, the Bench noted that the Government had not started construction of new institute due to pendency of the petition since 2017 though the court had not retrained construction.
The Government, in its statement, had said that new facility is required to cater to the need of the patients suffering from organ failures as establishment of new institute which will initially have 200-bed capacity and later can be enhanced to 500 beds, would considerably bring down cost of organ transplantation process.
