The Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) Trust for a direction to the State government to requisition at least 50% of the beds in all private hospitals for treating COVID-19 patients.
The trust, represented by its chairman M.H. Jawahirullah, had also insisted upon capping the treatment cost for COVID-19 patients in private hospitals, besides setting out a minimum standard for treatment at all hospitals and clinical centres, as required under law.
However, the first Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy said it was up to the government to take action on such issues, and that the Supreme Court too was seized of a case related to the cost of treatment.
Chief Justice said that the petitioner cannot make generalised allegations without including any of the hospitals as respondents, and that it was up to the individual concerned to file a writ petition if there were any issues in getting treatment at private hospitals.
