New Delhi, March 18 The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the Delhi government's response to a plea challenging the decision of the Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS) to provide free treatment to only 10 per cent of beds and 25 per cent of cases in the outpatient department for economically weaker sections (EWS).
A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia issued notice to the Delhi government and ILBS on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by the NGO Social Justice.
Advocate Satyakam, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that ILBS, a premier government-funded public healthcare institution specializing in serious liver diseases such as hepatitis, cirrhosis, and liver cancer, cannot be allowed to adopt a policy that effectively converts it into a "predominantly paid medical institution."
He argued that the decision was arbitrary, unreasonable, and violated Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution, as it discriminated between affluent and indigent patients by denying the latter their constitutional right to affordable and timely healthcare.
The court listed the matter for hearing on April 22 and asked the respondents to file their response.
In the petition filed through lawyers Ashok Agarwal and Kumar Utkarsh, the NGO asserted that even private hospitals allotted land by the government at concessional rates are required to provide free treatment to EWS patients to the extent of 10 per cent in-patient department (IPD) and 25 per cent out-patient department (OPD), and a fully government-owned hospital providing the same benefit was "wholly incongruous."
The PIL emphasized that the Supreme Court has mandated state-run hospitals to ensure equitable access to healthcare without "commercial barriers," and the "exclusionary and revenue-oriented policy" of ILBS has effectively converted it into a paid hospital, defeating the very purpose of its establishment.
Stressing that ensuring access to health facilities for vulnerable and marginalized was the government's "core obligation," the PIL sought a direction to quash ILBS policy and ask it to provide 100 per cent beds and medical services for free treatment to the general public.
Alternatively, directions should be issued to ILBS to enhance the EWS/free category quota to at least 50 per cent, it added.