The Madras High Court on January 21 held a special sitting to hear an urgent PIL filed against the decision to close Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry for half a day due to Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha (temple consecration) at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
The court recorded the submission of JIPMER stating that no elective/planned surgeries were scheduled in the forenoon session of Monday. The institute will be closed until 2:30 p.m. due to the Ram temple consecration.
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Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy also recorded the submission of Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by JIPMER standing counsel M.T. Arunan, that all emergent surgeries, scans and such other medical procedures would be conducted in the forenoon session too in the presence of the medical superintendents.
The submissions were made on instructions from the Deputy Director (Administration) of JIPMER, during the urgent hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Puducherry resident R. Raja. The petitioner had insisted upon quashing a circular issued by JIPMER on Friday, following a Central Government directive, to close the institute, but for emergency services, till 2:30 p.m. on Monday.
Senior Counsel V. Prakash, representing the PIL petitioner, told the court that JIPMER was a premier institution that tends to the needy and the downtrodden and works round the clock to achieve its goal. All appointments for speciality treatment and tests must be booked online and if such tests could not be undertaken on a particular day, then they get rescheduled after three months, he said.
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He feared surgeries scheduled on Monday forenoon might get postponed by three months due to the closure and thereby subject the patients to great hardship. A hospital being an essential service, that too under the direct control of the Central Government, could not turn a blind eye to the needs of the patients and suddenly decide to not work on a particular day, he argued.
On the other hand, the ASG told the court that no elective/planned surgeries had been scheduled on Monday morning and even if they had been scheduled, the institute was prepared to reschedule them at the earliest day possible. He also submitted that all emergency surgeries would be undertaken & emergency services, including planned evaluations, would run as usual.
After recording his submission, the first Division Bench wrote: “In view of the said statement made by learned Additional Solicitor General, the apprehension of the petitioner would stand redressed. The writ petition, as such, is disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.”
JIPMER had issued the circular pursuant to an Office Memorandum from the Union Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. The memorandum issued on Thursday stated that the Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha would be celebrated across the country on Monday.
“To enable employees to participate in the celebrations, it has been decided that all Central Government offices, central institutions and central industrial establishments throughout India will be closed for half a day till 14:30 hours on January 22, 2024,” it read.
