Seeking the initiation of proceedings against Delhi Chief Secretary, Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Directors General of Health Service & ICMR for allegedly not complying with a court order to take action against illegal online health service aggregators operating in Delhi & to regulate online pathological labs, a contempt plea has been moved in the High Court of Delhi.
“The court had on August 6 directed the concerned respondent authorities to initiate action in accordance with law against any illegal online health service aggregators operating in Delhi in violation of the applicable law including the Clinical Establishment (Registration & Regulations) Act, 2010, if applicable, or in violation of any rules, regulations or government policies applicable to the facts of the case. Action will be initiated in accordance with law against such violators of the law as expeditiously as possible & practicable, after giving an adequate opportunity of being heard to the concerned parties“, the plea stated.
It is alleged that the respondents are equally responsible for restraining the illegal practices of online aggregators, which are freely being carried out under the eyes of these officials in utter violations of the rules & regulations laid down by statutes & the guidelines issued by the respondents from time to time ever since the outbreak of deadly Coronavirus.
The plea is likely to come for hearing on Thursday.
With the several illegal online aggregators, advertising freely by offering attractive packages for body check-ups including the test for COVID-19 through SMSs or various online modes,the petitioner has received advertisements of online aggregators through e-mail for getting tested.
The contempt plea is moved by Rohit Jain through counsel Shashank Deo Sudhi.
The plea also stated that, “It’s also submitted that it is an extremely serious issue that the online aggregators are operating without any authorization & approval. Besides, these online aggregators are not accredited by any accreditation agency. The existence of such illegal online diagnostic aggregators are posing serious health challenge as a large number of people are falling prey to the attractive health packages being offered by these illegal online aggregators”. “The acts of respondents clearly constitute the contempt of the court & appropriate contempt proceedings should be initiated against them for acting against the order dated August 6, 2020 of this court”, the plea added.
The plea further alleged that, the respondent’s officials are promoting unqualified, unregistered medical practitioners to sign the pathological report and have been playing with precious life of innocent people by exposing them to untrained and highly incompetentpathological professional.
