COVID19: Pathological tests or diagnosis is part of fundamental right, says Gujarat govt

The Gujarat government on Thursday said that the right to "pathological tests or diagnosis" is part of fundamental rights enshrined in the Article 21 of constitution with "reasonable restrictions." The state government has also admitted that it cannot evolve a policy contrary to fundamental rights with regard to such tests. However, the government is of the opinion that it is "empowered to impose reasonable restrictions."

The state government has said this in response to a set of litigations being heard in Gujarat high court seeking court's intervention to allow every citizen get coronavirus tested in case he or she has doubts of having been infected.

Although the government recently modified its testing policy earlier this month by allowing testing on the prescription of qualified private doctors, earlier it was restricted to government authorities in view of guidelines suggested by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). This made many including medical associations to move high court.

Responding to the court, the state government has said in an affidavit that "If one were to consider the concept of ‘health’ and ‘medical care’, in an expansive manner, then in that case, pathological tests / diagnosis would certainly be one of the facets of the right to health as embodied in Article 21 of the Constitution of India. However, just like the fundamental rights conferred under Article 19, this fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution is also not an absolute right and is subject to reasonable restrictions."

"Media report on civil hospital should not be believed"

With regard to questions raised on the functioning of Ahmedabad civil hospital, Asarwa, the state government has said that media reports should not be believed. The affidavit states that the reports of increasing deaths in the civil hospital due to negligence and lack of infrastructure is not true. This is the same hospital which was termed by the high court as a "dungeon."

It says, "The main reasons for the death of COVID-19 patients are co-morbid condition and old age, who succumb to death despite having received sufficient care and treatment. Therefore, the unconfirmed reports so far published in the print and digital media in this behalf, should not be believed as gospel truth." The affidavit claims that "sufficient care is being taken in respect of all the COVID-19 patients in Civil Hospital and no negligence has ever been shown in case of any of such patients."

The affidavit mentions how Chief Minister Vijay Rupani and Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel are keeping a close watch on the functioning of the hospital. Similarly, other authorities like Chief Secretary Anil Mukim, Chief Principal Secretary CM K Kailashnathan, Additional Chief Secretary (COVID) Pankaj Kumar and Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi "have been keeping a close vigil on the administration and functioning of the Civil Hospital." This comes after the high court's strong observation against politicians and bureaucrats for mismanaging the hospital where by Thursday evening over 550 infected patients have succumbed.

As on today, out of 1592 deaths reported in the state, Ahmedabad alone has reported 1275 fatalities or over 80 per cent deaths. Out of 1275, 550 or over 40 per cent patients have died in the civil hospital.