The High Court on Thursday ordered the Delhi government to act against online health service aggregators, who are operating illegally and collecting samples for COVID-19 tests.
A Bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan gave the direction on a petition seeking a ban on collection and testing of samples for diagnosis by illegal and unregistered online health service aggregators.
Rohit Jain, in his petition filed through advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi, claimed that many of the online health service aggregators are misrepresenting themselves as Medical Diagnostic Laboratories.
Mr. Sudhi alleged that these illegal aggregators are not following the rules or regulations for the process of collecting diagnostic samples and are acting contrary to the guidelines issued by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The petition stated that a “large number of unauthorised pathological labs is being run by underqualified technicians who are providing totally unscientific diagnostic test reports” rendering people vulnerable to the loss of life “based on the false and fake diagnostic test reports across the NCT of Delhi”.
It said the lack of regulations for online health service aggregators and its unfettered operation through online websites are causing confusion about their legitimacy and legality.
“The common people are consequently constrained to fall victim on account of subsidised rates and prices of diagnostic test reports being offered by illegal and fake online aggregators,” advocate Sudhi said.
The petition stated that recently, the police arrested one person for illegal collection of diagnostic sample for COVID-19 test at Noida whose office was traced to a pathological lab situated at Dwarka in Delhi.
The plea said that the government has not taken any effective steps yet towards banning illegal pathological labs either online or offline.
