The Supreme Court pulled up the Gujarat government for bringing a notification to reverse its order on fire safety norms in Covid hospitals, warning that putting off the adherence till 2022 would mean “people will continue to die by burning”.
“The notification gives the impression that the state is protecting illegality,” the bench said, telling the Gujarat government to withdraw the notification extending the deadline for hospitals in connection with building use permissions.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, on his part, submitted that the court should visualise the impact, if a 10-story building with a hospital, required for Covid treatment now, doesn’t have building use permission. As a result, hospitals were required to be closed and in total, 30,000 beds could become unavailable.
It observed that hospitals have become large industries thriving on human distress, and it is better that they are closed. It added state governments can provide better hospitals, instead of permitting private hospitals to operate from small residential buildings.
The top court strongly condemned a report by a commission on the issue of fire safety in hospitals that was filed in a sealed cover. In December last year, the court had directed the Centre to submit data from all states on fire safety audits carried out in hospitals. The court noted that although different states and Union Territories have taken measures and conducted inspections.
The court was hearing a suo motu case concerning fire tragedies in Covid-19 hospitals across the country in Gujarat’s Rajkot and Ahmedabad.
