Delhi High Court today said it cannot pass "blanket stay order" on AAP government's decision asking Fortis Escorts Heart Institute here to deposit over Rs 100 crore for allegedly refusing to provide free treatment to poor patients as per land allotment lease condition.
Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva told the hospital that it would have to deposit Rs 105 crore as an "ad-hoc basis" if it wished to insist on a stay on the government's order.
"You (hospital) deposit Rs 105 crore as an ad hoc basis. There cannot be a blanket stay order. If it (amount) is to be returned, it will be returned to you. If you are insisting on a stay, you have to deposit the amount. Deposit this amount, otherwise the order will stand," the court said.
Senior counsel Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the hospital, told the court that they were not given proper hearing by the health department, which should explain how they had arrived at the figure of Rs 105 crore.
He said if the court was not inclined to give a stay, they would have to deposit the amount by tomorrow.
To this, the court said "in case, they (government) take any steps, you can come to the court any time."
The court issued notice to the government and asked them to produce the records on the basis of which they had arrived at the fine amount by the next date of hearing on July 19.
Besides Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, the AAP government had asked four other Delhi-based private hospitals -- Max Super Specialty Hospital (Saket), Dharamshila Cancer Hospital, Shanti Mukand Hospital and Pushpawati Singhania Research Institute -- to deposit "unwarranted profits" of over Rs 600 crore for allegedly refusing free treatment to the poor.
The Delhi government's health department had claimed that
these hospitals were provided land at concessional rates between 1960 and 1990on the condition that they will treat the poor free of cost, but they have not abided by it.
"The penalty has been imposed on the basis of a High Court order passed in 2007 on a PIL demanding implementation of the provision of free treatment to poor and action against the erring hospitals. And the fine amount has been calculated accordingly," the health department had said.
During the hearing, Sibal told the court "we want to know what is the basis for arriving at the amount of Rs 105 crore. They (department) have to inform us about it. The previous show cause notice says Rs 736 crore. Then it says around Rs 500 crore."
The court, however, said it would examine the documents to be supplied by the government as directed by it.
As many as 43 private hospitals in Delhi were allotted land at concessional rates on the condition that they will keep 10 per cent of their in-patient department capacity and 25 per cent of out-patient department capacity to treat economically weaker section patients free of cost.
