HC slams state over failure to regulate nursing homes

Mumbai: The Bombay high court has questioned the state government’s failure to apply its own law pertaining to regulation of nursing homes in the state.

A division bench of Justices N.H. Patil and G.S. Kulkarni was hearing a public interest litigation filed by Pune resident Atul Bhosale, pointing at the poor condition of hospitals and nursing homes in the state.

The petition claimed that there were several nursing homes in the state which were running without obtaining registration as mandated under the Maharashtra Nursing Homes Registration Act. The petition stated that regular inspection as mandated under the Act was also not carried out by the state government. It pointed out that the central government had enacted the Clinical Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Act in 2010 to provide for registration and regulation of all clinical establishments in the country.

Justice Patil said, “Why is the government so reluctant to implement the provisions of this central Act? Why are you (government) succumbing to the pressures of the medical community?” The bench noted that the state was neither applying its own law nor following the central government’s law in order to regulate illegal nursing homes.

The bench then directed advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhkoni to appear in the matter on June 8.