L-G overrules Delhi govt order on reserving treatment for Delhiites
Instructs all concerned depts to ‘ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on the ground of not being a resident of Delhi’
NEW DELHI: Invoking his powers as the Chairman of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority, Lieutenant-governor Anil Baijal on Monday overruled the Delhi government’s order that had reserved COVID-19 treatment in state-run and private hospitals only for residents of Delhi, which had led to a horde of questions being raised about the legality of the order and had led to many in the Capital being worried for their healthcare.
A day after the controversial order was issued by the Government of NCT of Delhi, L-G Baijal instructed all concerned departments and authorities of the Delhi government to “ensure that treatment is not denied to any patient on the ground of not being a resident of Delhi”.
The L-G also issued another order on Monday exercising his powers as the DDMA Chairperson, revoking the Delhi government’s June 2 order to exclude asymptomatic patients from the state’s COVID19 testing criteria. L-G Baijal cited the national testing strategy prescribed by the ICMR on May 18 to show that testing of asymptomatic direct and high-risk contacts of a confirmed case be tested mandatorily between day 5 and day 10 of coming into contact.
The DDMA Chairperson’s order directed all departments of the Delhi government to follow the ICMR testing strategy, noting that any deviation from this could “result in inadequate contact tracing of affected individuals and can result in further spread of COVID-19”.
As per the Disaster Management Act of 2005, in Union Territories with a legislative assembly, the L-G is the ex-officio Chairperson of the State Disaster Management Authority unlike states, where the Chief
Minister is the ex-officio Chairperson. In Delhi’s case, L-G Baijal is the Chairperson whereas Chief Minister Kejriwal is the ex-officio Vice-chairperson of the Authority, thereby allowing the former to overrule the Delhi government’s order.
In his order, L-G Baijal said: “All Government and private hospitals and nursing homes situated in the NCT of Delhi have to extend
medical facilities to all COVID-19 patients coming for monitoring/ treatment without any discrimination of being resident or non-resident of NCT of Delhi.”
In overruling the Delhi government order, the DDMA Chairperson cited several Supreme Court orders that had previously tied a citizen’s Right to Health intrinsically to Right to Life under Article 21 of the
Constitution and also cited a Delhi High Court order from 2018, which had held that denying medical treatment on grounds of non-residency impermissible.
However, the Delhi government had cited the report of a panel constituted by it to plan COVID19 healthcare infrastructure, which had claimed that the Delhi government would need 15,000 beds by the end of June and that if non-residents were provided treatment, this capacity would be full in just three days.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
later tweeted on Monday that the L-G’S order revoking his government’s decision to restrict COVID19 treatment to Delhiites “has created a huge problem and chal
lenge for the people of Delhi”. However, he added: “Maybe it is God’s will that I serve the people of the entire country. I will try to make arrangements to provide treatment for everyone.”