Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute to provide free treatment to EWS patients in OPD, IPD from March 1

NGO Social Jurist, represented by advocate Ashok Aggarwal, had moved the high court in 2018 and contended that the hospital was allotted land by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) on concessional rates on the condition that it would provide free treatment to poor patients to the extent of 10 percent in the IPD and 25 percent in the OPD, but was not doing so.

Aggarwal had earlier argued that the high court in 2007 and the Supreme Court in July 2018 had said hospitals that were allotted land on concessional rates would have to provide free treatment to poor patients to the extent of 10 per cent in the IPD and 25 per cent in the OPD.

However, the hospital had not provided free treatment to any poor patient in the last two decades, the NGO had alleged and claimed that in this manner, it had earned “unwarranted profits”, which it was liable to pay to the government for the good of the society.

The NGO had sought directions to the hospital to forthwith provide free treatment to poor patients in accordance with the land allotment conditions.

It had also requested the court to direct the Delhi government to initiate the process for the recovery of the “unwarranted profits” earned by the hospital by not providing free treatment to poor patients.