Government Can't Swing Like Pendulum: Delhi High Court On Nursing Homes Order

A government cannot swing like a pendulum from one side to the other and there has to be a sense of equilibrium, the Delhi High Court told the Delhi government when it said it was sometimes forced to recall its actions as a result of judicial intervention.

The Delhi government, during hearing of a plea regarding overcharging by private hospitals, said that it can initiate audits of these institutions and also take strict action, but the court should not stay the same if any of them "come crying".

The government said that recently it had issued an order that nursing homes without fire clearances can only treat patients on the ground and first floors and the same had to be withdrawn when the matter reached court.

To this, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said, "There has to be a sense of equilibrium. The government cannot swing like a pendulum from one side to another."

Explaining what it meant by the observation, the bench said when the nursing homes issue had come before it, the court had said that the government had allowed them to function till now and in the midst of the pandemic if they were asked to let go of their patients, especially those suffering from COVID-19, such people would have nowhere to go as beds were scarce.

The court said that all it had told the Delhi government was that it could have asked the nursing homes not to admit patients on second and above floors once the patients already there were discharged with a clean bill of health.