The Madras High Court on Friday disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed against the MIOT International Hospital on the grounds that the charges made were all based on surmises and conjectures.
The first Bench, comprising Chief Justice S.K.Kaul and Justice M.M. Sundresh passed the order based on the affidavits filed by various government authorities that the hospital had all the requisite permissions for the construction and the building was not a violation.
The issue pertains to a PIL moved by 'Traffic' K.R. Ramaswamy, seeking a direction to the State government to take immediate steps to demolish the “unauthorised encroachment upon Adyar River” by MIOT International Hospital, and to further direct the government to cancel all the permissions accorded to the hospital.
The petitioner alleged that the hospital had constructed a 10-storey building very close to the Adyar River without sanctions. During the December flood, the alleged “encroachment” was breached, causing power failure and > the death of 18 patients . He further alleged that no proper action has been taken by the police.
When the PIL came up for hearing, the hospital management submitted that none of the alleged 18 deaths was due to drowning. Post-mortem conducted on the bodies at the government hospitals revealed that no death had occurred due to drowning or under any suspicious circumstances, explained P.V.A. Mohandas, managing director of the hospital.
The hospital further submitted that the building was constructed over 150 meters away from the banks of the Adyar and 10 meters above the Mean Sea Level (MSL), by a reputed construction company.
In a separate affidavit, the Chennai District Collector submitted that the hospital was not built on patta land, and not 'poromboke' land and hence, the question of encroachment did not arise.
On the allegation that 75 persons may have died in the hospital, the authorities submitted that autopsy was conducted in the government hospitals only on 14 patients who died in the critical care unit of the hospital. Five more persons died during the same period and the bodies were handed over to the relatives. Thus, the allegation that 75 persons died was ' purely imaginary.'
It was further submitted that the investigation process was still on to examine if any criminal negligence tantamount to culpable homicide could be made out. Once the investigation was complete, the final report would be filed before the Judicial Magistrate. The Government Pleader submitted that the investigation process may take about six weeks more.
Recording the submissions, the Bench said, “The writ petition accordingly stands disposed of.”
Published - April 01, 2016 03:34 pm IST
