PIL filed in Delhi HC challenging Delhi govt's move reserving hospital beds for residents

One day after Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced that the beds in Delhi Hospitals would be exclusively reserved for Delhi residents, a petition has been filed before the Delhi High Court on Monday, stating that the decision is "highly discriminatory".

The Public Interest Litigation petition has been filed on behalf of Advocate Gautam Kumar and law student Gaurav Sarkar by Advocate Shashwat Anand before the Delhi High Court asking for directions to be issued to the Delhi Government to rollback the decision taken by them.

The petitioners tell the Delhi HC that they are "under the justifiable apprehension that the treatment meted out to the individuals not falling under the category mentioned by the Delhi government will be prejudicial, biased, unfair, unjust and highly discriminatory". They also state that the classification is not based on any intelligible differentia and does not help in controlling the spread of the virus in the State.

The PIL states,

"The Present Writ Petition is being filed on account of the hardship and challenges which the petitioners herein might face due to the arbitrary order issued by the government of NCT of Delhi. Petitioner no. 1 is an Advocate who is permanent resident of Bihar and residing in state of Delhi since 2015, where as the petitioner no 2 is a permanent resident of Uttar Pradesh and is student of law in Delhi
University, resident in the state of Delhi since 2017. 

Whereas both the petitioner are adversely affected by the arbitrary order dated 7/6/2020 of Government of NCT wherein it has been ordered that all the hospitals operating under the Government of NCT of Delhi and all the private hospitals and nursing homes shall ensure that only bonafide residents of NCT of Delhi are to be admitted for treatment in these hospitals and has further given an exhaustive list valid proof of residence which are required for treatment of individuals suffering from COVID-19. 

Although both the petitioners are residing in the state of Delhi for more than a year but does not have any such proof of resident as the state of NCT of Delhi has given in its exhaustive list in order dated 7/6/2020. Hence the present petition."

Further, the petition states, the order is violative of the Right to Life under Article 21 of the Constitution which guarantees protection of life to every citizen. It will also promote the malpractices of private hospitals selling beds to patients which is going on in the State even as strong apprehension was expressed by the Chief Minister himself.

The PIL is likely to be taken up by the Delhi High Court on June 10.