NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said hospitals have become huge real estate industries instead of serving humanity in the time of pandemic.
The apex court also pulled up the Gujarat government for extending the deadline till July next year for hospitals to rectify the building by-law violations, and said the carte blanche notification was in total violation of its December 18 order last year. It added that people will continue to die in fire incidents.
“These hospitals have become like a huge real estate industry instead of serving the cause of humanity in the face of human tragedy. You (Gujarat government) have been extending the deadline, which cannot be done in view of our December 18, last year order. Hospitals are meant to provide succour to the patients in distress but instead they become money minting machines,” said a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah.
Hospitals have become huge industries at the time of this tragedy and these kinds of nursing homes, running from two-three room flats in a residential colony, should not be allowed to work, the bench added.
“It is better that these hospitals are closed and the state should provide necessary infrastructure. We cannot allow these hospitals to continue working,” it said.