HC directs petitioner to implead registrar general of HC, principal judge of district court in plea seeking court premise for isolation ward

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed a petitioner to implead the registrar general of the HC and the principal district judge of Kolhapur in his public interest litigation (PIL) after he informed the court that the principal district judge refused a request by a magistrate and chairman of the district disaster management authority to hand over a vacant premise of the district and sessions court of Kolhapur to an adjoining hospital. The request for the court building was meant for setting up a temporary isolation ward for Kolhapur city as the adjoining hospital did not have sufficient space to accommodate the increasing number of Covid-19 patients.

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A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice KK Tated while hearing the PIL filed by Dilip Desai, a social worker and philanthropist from Kolhapur, on Tuesday through video conferencing was informed by senior advocate Satish Talekar that there was only one government hospital in Kolhapur, the Chhatrapati Pramila Raje (CPR) district hospital, which was providing treatment to both Covid and non-Covid patients from the same premise. This, Talekar said, was creating an unsafe environment for non-Covid patients, especially expecting mothers who got admitted to the hospital. Talekar submitted that there was an urgent need to set up a separate isolation unit for Covid positive patients.

Desai’s petition further said that as per information received under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the district magistrate and chairperson of the district disaster management authority on April 28 had written to the principal judge sessions court seeking temporary handover of four buildings of the old district and sessions court situated across the road from the hospital to enable setting up of separate spaces for Covid-19 and regular patients. Talekar said as the district and sessions court had been shifted to a new premise, barring the ground floor of one of the four buildings in the old court complex, the remaining buildings were vacant and hence the district magistrate and disaster management authority had requested for the buildings to set up an isolation ward away from the main CPR hospital building.

Talekar stated that as per a communication from the Building Committee of the HC on May 8, the request was rejected without assigning any reason. In light of this and the fact that there could be a spurt in the number of Covid positive cases in Kolhapur, the plea prayed for directions to the disaster management authority to requisition the old district and sessions court building for segregation of patients and to submit a report on measures taken to segregate Covid and non-Covid patients visiting the CPR hospital and other reliefs.

After hearing the submissions, the bench observed that as the HC’s building committee and principal judge of the district and sessions court were necessary parties they should be impleaded in the petition and posted the matter for hearing on May 29.