A Division bench comprising Chief Justice Aravind Kumar and Justice Ashutosh J. Shastri set up a committee to look into the issue that was brought to the court’s notice through a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) stating that two pregnant women were denied medical care by the hospitals in the state.

The Court also noted that various cases are coming to its’s notice that hospitals are refusing to admit the patients, including pregnant women, unless an amount is paid to the hospital.

The committee appointed by the court will be led by retired High Court judge, Justice Harsha Devani. The court also appointed Senior Advocate Asim Pandya as amicus curiae in the said matter.

“In government hospitals, who will go? It is only the poor people. Those who can afford it, will go to bigger hospitals. It is they (poor people) who require real compassion and real good treatment. The Doctors take hippocratic oath, I don’t know how they live up to it…Very saddening.”, remarks the court.

Two instances were brought to the notice of the court, one wherein a pregnant woman was forced to give birth to a child, who died later on, outside the hospital after she was denied admission to the L.G. Hospital in Ahmedabad, and another where a pregnant woman was asked for money by a private hospital and since she could not pay the same, she was denied admission to the hospital forcing her to deliver the child under the stairs of the hospital.