New Delhi, Nov 24 (UNI) The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the Central Government and sought its reply within two weeks on a petition, urging the apex court to cap the cost of RT-PCR tests (conducted to check whether a person has Novel Coronavirus) uniformly at Rs 400 across the country.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL), filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal, claimed that the actual cost of the RT PCR test was around Rs 200, but various hospitals and laboratories across the country were charging exorbitant prices from the gullible patients.
The petitioner demanded that the rate of RT PCR test be fixed at one single uniform price across the country.
“Various hospitals and laboratories are charging an exorbitant amount from COVID-19 patients. The apex court must pass appropriate directions and order to the UoI in this regard,’ said Mr Agrawal.
A Bench, headed by Chief Justice SA Bobde, fixed the matter for further hearing after two weeks.
The matter has been tagged with a similar plea by Advocate Sachin Jain, which seeks for nationwide cost-related regulations for treatment of COVID-19 patients at private and corporate hospitals.
Mr Jain’s plea contended that the issue of cost regulations across the country to private and corporate entities for the treatment of COVID-19 patients was a matter of ‘urgent consideration,’ as many private hospitals were commercially exploiting patients suffering from the deadly virus ‘to make a fortune out of their miseries in the hour of national crisis’.
