HC tells Delhi govt to take action against illegal online health service aggregators

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Delhi government to take action in accordance with law against the online health service aggregators who have been operating

The Delhi High Court on Thursday asked the Delhi government to take action in accordance with law against the online health service aggregators who have been operating illegally and collecting samples for Covid-19 tests. The move came after a plea was filed contending that such entities were “misrepresenting themselves as medical diagnostic laboratories”.

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A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan directed the government to take action in accordance with law, rules, regulations and government policy applicable to the case against any such entity which is operating illegally in violation of the law, after hearing all stakeholders.

The bench said a decision would be taken as expeditiously as possible and practicable after all stakeholders, including the alleged violators are heard.

The court was hearing a plea seeking a ban on allegedly illegal online health service aggregators from collecting diagnostic samples for testing of Covid-19 virus.

The petitioner in the case — doctor Rohit Jain— in his plea filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, had contended that such health service aggregators pose the “biggest threat to life and safety of the common people”.

The petition had contended that many of the online health service aggregators are operating illegally as they are neither accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) nor approved by ICMR or any other regulatory body.