Supreme Court slams Gujarat government's move to ease safety rules of hospital buildings

On Friday, the Supreme Court of India has slammed the Gujarat state government for easing the hospital building safety rules when COVID is at its peak. Gujarat state government on July 8 had said in its notification that no action would be taken against buildings without 'Building Use Permission' till March next year. However, the state government had clarified that this notification did not mean that rules for fire safety clearance had been relaxed. As per ANI, the Supreme Court said, "The Gujarat government notification goes against public health and safety. In the effort to save people in pandemic we are killing people by fire."

SC on Gujarat government's notification

Justice MR Shah told the Gujarat government lawyer: “Have you seen the condition of ICUs? 7-8 beds in small rooms. We are not passing any orders on ICUs because this is an emergency situation we are in. But if you were to go by ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) rules then 80 percent of the ICUs would have to shut down.”

“There are hospitals that have been running for over 30 years without requisite permissions and safety measures. We are constantly only exempting developers who are violating laws, that is all we are doing in this country,” the judges added.

Justice DY Chandrachud emphasized that the Gujrat state government could not allow such illegal buildings. “If the government allows such illegal buildings to function then it’s going to be very unsafe. You can’t have nursing homes that have five floors and no lifts. Or no proper exits. We will be permitting dangerous establishments to continue if we keep giving liberties like this. By granting exemption and stays we are conniving if we do this. We can’t cure all ills in Indian society but we must do what we can as judges to uphold the rule of law,” said Justice Chandrachud.

As per the PTI report, six people died at Rajkot’s Uday Shivanand Hospital. The police said the fire started in the ICU; investigations pointed at hospital negligence last November. On May 18, people died in another hospital fire in Bharuch.

Gujarat HC quashes state govt's plea to rectify order restraining anti-conversion law

In another development on Thursday, the Gujarat High court rejected the Gujarat government’s plea to rectify the court’s order where it had issued a stay on the operations of Section 5 of the new anti-conversion law. Earlier, the state government had requested the Gujarat High Court to take back its order restricting the process of section 5 of the newly formed law.

Image Credits: Representative Image/PTI