Plea In SC Seeks Direction To Centre To Ensure Refund Of Exorbitant Amounts Charged By Pvt. Labs, Hospitals For RT-PCR Tests

The Supreme Court on Saturday has been moved in a plea for direction to the Centre to ensure refund of "exorbitant" amounts charged by private labs and hospitals for conducting RT-PCR tests to detect COVID-19.The interim application has been filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ajay Agrawal in his pending PIL in which he had sought fixing of uniform rate of Rs 400 across India, as done by Odisha, for the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test. A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, on November 24, had issued notice to the Union Health Ministry on Agrawal's PIL and had sought its response within two weeks.The application filed yesterday avers that Govt. of Orissa, after working on all the statistics, And after examining all the aspects came to the conclusion that the actual cost incurred by the Private Labs and Hospitals is not more Rs. 200/- which vindicated the stand of the applicant also, and after allowing to take hundred percent profit on it, the maximum rates to be charged were fixed at Rs. 400/-."For the last several months these Private labs and Hospitals were looting the poor people of this Country. Like in Delhi the notification was issued on 18.6.2020 fixing the maximum rate 2400/- and the cost of the kit and other things used in the test has gone down in the month of April-may itself, at the rate which is available at present", it is stated.It is urged that "therefore these Private labs and Hospitals have very exorbitantly charged from the innocent and poor people of this Country to the extent of Rs. 3000/- around when this test was charged @Rs. 4500/- while the total cost of the test including its kit comes to somewhere between Rs. 800/- and 1200/- and afterwards the amount charged over and above Rs. 400/- when the total cost of the test comes to less than Rs.200/-and it was acknowledged by the State of Orissa which has already fixed the prices of this test to Rs. 400/- adding hundred percent profit after doing due diligence in this matter".Aggarwal submits that "this exorbitant over and above amount charged from poor and innocent people of this Country needs to be refunded immediately as it is not only unrealistic and unreasonable but is shocking"."In a Country like India where crores of people are living Below Poverty Line and Country's GDP has gone down to minus 23.9% (-23.09%) during the lockdown period and therefore this over charged amount be refunded to the affected people forthwith. Therefore exorbitant money taken from the people of this Country is nothing but extortion and for this whoever is responsible or guilty must be appropriately punished and the over charged amount be refunded to the individuals/victims at the earliest", it is sought.The applicant urges that the people of the country are shocked and feeling befooled and cheated, not only by these Private labs and Hospitals, but by the political executives and officials of this country who are either totally insensitive towards the 135 crores population, by not inquiring or investigating that why this test is so expensively charged and how much the actual expenses incurred on this test are, or have done it deliberately in connivance with the Private labs and Hospitals. The Applicant prays for order for fixing a uniform maximum rate of Rs. 400/- for the RT-PCR test across India on the principle of parity and one nation-one rate policy, and responsibility be fixed of the concerned officials or persons in all the States, NCT of Delhi and UTs for remaining insensitive, deliberately or negligently, to the cause of 135 crores people of this Country. Further, an order is sought for the earliest refund of the additional amount charged to the extent of around Rs. 3000/- when this test was charged @Rs. 4500/- across India, while the total cost of the test including its kit comes to somewhere between Rs. 800/- and 1200/- and afterwards when it was charged by Meghalaya @Rs.3200/- Andhra Pradesh 2800/-, Delhi @Rs.2400/- and so on, the entire amount charged over and above Rs. 400/- be refunded.Click Here To Download Petition[Read Petition]

Plea In SC Seeks Direction To Centre To Ensure Refund Of Exorbitant Amounts Charged By Pvt. Labs, Hospitals For RT-PCR Tests

Mehal Jain

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