Karnataka HC quashes license cancellation of Bengaluru hospital for allegedly overcharging COVID-19 patients

Bengaluru: The Health and Family Welfare commissioner’s decision to shut down Gurushree Hitech Multi-Speciality Hospital in Bengaluru over complaints of overcharging and improper treatment has been reversed by the Karnataka High Court while pointing out the lack of jurisdiction on the part of the original authority. 

The high court said that the defect of the jurisdiction of the original authority cannot be cured by the Appellate Authority despite having jurisdiction to consider the appeal. 

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The hospital's registration was cancelled on August 20, 2022, by the deputy commissioner and district registration authority, deemed as the original authority, after completing its proceedings. The action was taken after N Munirathna, former horticulture minister and Rajarajeshwarinagar MLA, filed a complaint against the hospital. 

The complainant alleged that the hospital was improperly treating the COVID patients and was also charging them exorbitantly. The minister, according to a media report in the Times of India, said that he has received multiple complaints from his voters in this regard. 

The hospital had then filed an appeal before the Commissioner for Health and Family Welfare, which upheld the decision to shut down the hospital and cancel its registration. After that, the hospital challenged the order in the High Court, where Justice Nagaprasanna held that the original order passed by the Deputy Commissioner and District Registration Authority was without jurisdiction. 

The court pointed out that the BBMP chief commissioner is the original authority as per the amendment to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act. A different committee was set up for the medical establishments in the BBMP limits after COVID-19, reports the Deccan Herald. 

Justice Nagaprasanna said, "Merely because the petitioner files an appeal to the appropriate authority against an order of the original authority, which was without jurisdiction and the Appellate Authority considering the appeal on its merit would not cure the want of jurisdiction of the original Authority. If the foundation is faulty, the super-structure of any amount of strength cannot cure the defect." 

It noted, "If the original Authority is coram non-judice, the competent Appellate Authority, by considering the appeal, cannot breathe life into such original order and make it coram judice. It is by now a hackneyed principle of law that if a statute prescribes performance of duties upon certain authorities, those duties shall be performed only by those authorities and no one else, as error or jurisdiction always cuts at the root of the matter." 

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