HC asks Bihar govt to close down all illegal path labs within

The Patna High Court today directed the Bihar government to crack down on all illegal pathological labs operating in the state and ensure that they were closed down within two weeks.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice M R Shah and Justice Ravi Ranjan passed the order on a Public Interest Litigation filed by the Indian Association of Pathologists and Microbiologists and others.

In the PIL, the court's attention was drawn to the fact that in in the state, "various polyclinics, diagnostic centres, nursing homes and small, medium and large hospitals are functioning in an illegal manner without there being any proper regulatory measures to evaluate their functioning".

The court directed the state government to file a report of the action taken by it within two weeks.

Noting that the state had so far placed on record data relating to pathology labs of only 19 districts, the court also ordered that details of such laboratories and diagnostic centres be produced by the next date of hearing.