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Supreme Court seeks Gujarat action plan on hospital fires within a week
Senior lawyer Dushyant Dave asked the Supreme Court to take note of a recent ordinance in Gujarat on regularising certain categories of unauthorised construction
The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Gujarat government to file a report within a week on corrective measures taken to curb instances of hospital fires.
A bench of justices Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and Hima Kohli directed the state government to file an updated status report after it was informed that an inquiry commission headed by former Gujarat high court judge justice (retd) DA Mehta was formed last year following three major fires at Covid-designated hospitals in Bharuch, Ahmedabad and Rajkot in 2020 and 2021 resulting in the death of 31 people including nurses.
“We want to know what action is the state planning to take after having constituted the commission,” the bench remarked as it told the state to file an affidavit on the updated position on the action plan. The case will be next taken up in the week commencing November 7.
During the hearing, the court enquired if the commission report had been tabled in the assembly. The state was told to get instructions in this regard even as news reports suggested that it was tabled in the Gujarat Assembly in September last year.
Senior advocate Dushyant Dave assisting the court as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in the matter said that the state came out with an ordinance two weeks ago that allowed the regularisation of certain categories of unauthorized construction. He said that the problem behind frequent hospital fires was the nexus between police and municipal authorities who allowed the conversion of any commercial space as a hospital without the requisite license or building use certificate.
“We need hospitals but we need clear demarcation between residential and commercial areas. Every unauthorized construction comes up thanks to the blessings of the police and civic authorities who have agreed to do so in exchange for money and citizens are made to pay for it. Now they want to legitimize it. How can you do that,” Dave said.
The bench told Dave that in a suo moto petition it will not be possible for the court to examine the validity of the ordinance. Dave said that the earlier orders passed by the court in the case restrict the state from coming out with any law protecting unauthorised nursing homes and hospitals having no fire clearance or building use certificate.
The court asked Dave to prepare a note indicating the previous orders and the relief that could be expected from the court. “We will not be able to deal with the validity of the ordinance but we will see what parameters are open to us for issuing directions.”
The court was confronted with this issue in a suo moto case of 2020 relating to the treatment of Covid 19 patients and the dignified handling of dead bodies in Hospitals” when the first wave of the pandemic hit the country. In Gujarat, the issue of hospital fires attracted the attention of the court as Covid patients died in two hospitals in Ahmedabad and Rajkot.
In May 2021, another major fire was reported in Bharuch which led to the death of 16 Covid patients and two nurses. Concerned over the repeated incidents, the top court directed all states to conduct a mandatory safety audit of all hospitals across the country and asked each state to appoint a nodal officer for each Covid hospital.
