Madras HC disposes of PIL against half-day closure of JIPMER

Chennai, Jan 21 (IANS) The Madras High Court on Sunday disposed of a PIL filed by a person, R. Raja of Puduchery, against the closure of the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) till 2.30 p.m. on Monday (January 22) for the Pran Pratishtha ceremony in Ayodhya.

A special sitting of the Madras High Court was held on Sunday to hear the PIL as it was of an urgent nature.

The first bench of the Madras High Court comprising Chief Justice S.S. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy disposed of the PIL after the Central government assured the court that all the required Medical services will be available on Monday for handling emergency cases at the institution.

Additional Solicitor General A.R.L. Sundaresan, representing the Union government, assured the court that the treatment that has to be done will be done and that MRIs required to be taken will be taken. He told the division bench of the Madras HC that all emergency scans would be done .

Sundaresan also assured the court that all the planned surgeries will be rescheduled for the next earliest slot and added that all the patients who were scheduled for surgeries were intimated in advance on the change of dates.

He also said that to handle emergency situations, a dedicated work force has been allocated. The Additional Solicitor General also said that there were no elective surgeries scheduled for Monday.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel G. Prakash said that if the scheduled surgeries were not performed on January 22 morning the patients would suffer and added that this would add up to the backlog of cases already in JIPMER.

The court recorded the assurances of the Additional Solicitor General and disposed of the Public Interest Litigation.