Chandigarh health dept again restrained from removing GMSH-16 chemist

The court of civil judge (junior division) Jaspreet Singh Minhas restrained the Chandigarh health department from dispossessing the chemist from the Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH)’s premises

Six weeks after the UT health department terminated the lease of the sole chemist at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector 16, a local court on Thursday restrained the department from removing the chemist.

For 29 years, the chemist shop has been operated by the same firm through multiple extensions and renewals, and at minimal rent as compared to market price. (HT File)

The court of civil judge (junior division) Jaspreet Singh Minhas restrained the health department from dispossessing the chemist from the hospital premises, on the basis of a September 30 show-cause notice, till the lease deed ends on September 11, 2024, or during the pendency of the present suit, whichever is earliest.

For 29 years, the chemist shop has been operated by the same firm through multiple extensions and renewals, and at minimal rent as compared to market price. The shop was allotted to Sunil Kumar Jain on lease for only two years through an auction in 1993. While the first lease ended in 1995, the hospital authorities never floated a fresh tender and have been extending the lease every five years, with the latest extension occurring in 2019 – for up to 2024, an inspection by the health department had found.

The lease was extended on several occasions on the basis of a 2000 finance department notification, which was withdrawn by the UT health department in September after it became clear that it was not meant for shops at health facilities.

However, the chemist approached court, alleging that the health secretary in connivance with the finance secretary manufactured the said condition in the 2000 notification by twisting words.

In their response, the UT health director and secretary, finance secretary and hospital’s medical superintendent, said the 2000 notification was never applicable to the properties of GMSH-16 and therefore, the contract in itself was void ab initio (from the beginning).

This was also conveyed by the finance department to the health secretary on September 23, 2022, and all previous advices, communications and directions regarding extension of licence or lease of shops, booths and canteens on the basis of the finance department notification were withdrawn.

Taking up the chemist’s plea, the court observed that the 2000 notification nowhere provided that once a lease was given to a specific person, it had to be mandatorily renewed. “The department could have leased the demised premises by open auction, but it chose to avoid the same for reasons best known to the officials of the department,” the court observed, while restraining the health department from dispossessing the chemist.

Notably, on September 23, the same court had also ordered a stay on the chemist’s removal on the basis of another show-cause notice by the department that alleged that the chemist had demolished a partition wall and encroached upon a passage, thereby doubling its size. The court had ordered the stay observing that no fact-finding inquiry was conducted regarding the alleged demolition and no evidence to support the allegations was submitted.