Provide list of maternity homes and childbirths therein since lockdown: HC to BMC

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file an affidavit enumerating the clinics and maternity homes attending to

The Bombay high court (HC) has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file an affidavit enumerating the clinics and maternity homes attending to pregnant women in the city and also the number of deliveries conducted in these medical centres over the past couple of weeks. The directions were issued in response to a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking appropriate measures to be put in place for the care and treatment of expecting women.

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The PIL was filed by advocate Mohiuddin Vaid after he came across a news report about a pregnant woman who was refused admission to four hospitals, including JJ Hospital, as she did not have a Covid negative report.

On Friday, the division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice AA Sayed while hearing the PIL filed by Vaid through video conferencing, was informed of the news report wherein an expecting woman was refused admission to the hospitals and had to deliver her baby at home with the help of a midwife.

In light of this submission, Vaid sought directions for appropriate measures to be put in place for expecting women to be attended to. However, state lawyer Jyoti Chavan opposed the allegation and said that no such incident was reported at JJ Hospital.

The court accepted Sakhare’s request and directed the civic body to file a response. “BMC should indicate the names and particulars of maternity homes and clinics which are attending to expecting women and the number of deliveries that have been conducted in such maternity homes and clinics over the past couple of weeks,” the bench said posting the next hearing for May 22.