CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has refused to interfere with the order of the union government refusing to grant customs duty exemption on the import of medical equipment by two corporate hospitals on the grounds that such hospitals failed to fulfil the exemption condition required to provide free treatment to poor people.
“When the petitioners themselves have not established that they had reserved 10% beds to the poor and free treatment to 40% of outpatients in hospitals where the imported equipments were installed, this court is of the considered opinion that the petitioners are not entitled to the relief as sought,” Justice SM Subramaniam said in an order passed on Wednesday.
He dismissed the petitions filed by the Apollo and Sri Gokulam hospitals seeking orders to the DGHS to provide them with the customs duty exemption certificate. The matter pertains to the import of medical equipment by both hospitals between 1985 and 1993. The judge also did not agree with the contention that free treatment was given to poor patients in medical camps organised outside the hospitals where the imported equipment were installed.