Provide list of maternity homes, number of deliveries since lockdown: Bombay high court to BMC

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice A A Sayed heard the PIL filed by Mohiuddin Vaid through video conferencing on Friday. The bench was informed of the news report.

Bombay high court has directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to file an affidavit listing clinics and maternity homes attending to pregnant women in Mumbai and also the number of deliveries conducted over the past couple of weeks.

The directions were issued after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed seeking directions for appropriate measures to be put in place for pregnant women to be attended to. (Biplov Bhuyan/HT file photo. Representative image)

The directions were issued after a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed seeking directions for appropriate measures to be put in place for pregnant women to be attended to.

The PIL was filed by an advocate who came across a news report that an expecting woman was refused admission to JJ Hospital as she did not have a Covid-19 negative report. Three other hospitals, including a maternity home, also turned away the woman after which she had to deliver her child at home with the help of a midwife.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice A A Sayed heard the PIL filed by Mohiuddin Vaid through video conferencing on Friday. The bench was informed of the news report.

State lawyer Jyoti Chavan opposed the allegation and said that no such incident was reported at JJ Hospital.

Senior counsel Anil Sakhare for BMC submitted that there were a number of maternity homes and clinics catering to expecting women and they could avail their services.

Sakhare sought time from the court to clarify the corporation’s position on the same.

The court accepted Sakhare’s request and directed the civic body to file a response.

“BMC should indicate the name and particulars of maternity homes and clinics which are attending to expecting ladies and the number of deliveries that have been conducted in such maternity homes and clinics over the past couple of weeks,” it said.

The court also said that after going through the particulars furnished by BMC in its response, the PIL would be disposed of in the next hearing on May 22.