Positive order passed in the High Court of Chhattisgarh regarding the quality of care in Gaurela CHC

Post Date: Tuesday, September 26, 2017

On the 22nd September 2017, in Kali Bai W/o Sita Ram Kasar vs. Union of India & Ors., the High Court of Chhattisgarh delivered an order regarding the quality of care in Gaurela CHC, which the petitioner's daughter had died at during delivery due to a lack of functional medical facilities. 

In delivering the judgment, Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Judge Sharad Kumar Gupta outlined quality of care as relating to the inalienable right to life and the corresponding right to health:

'Right to health includes the right to access public health facilities and right to minimum standard of treatment and care through such facilities. Such right to health and reproductive rights of the mother are two among the inalienable components of basic, fundamental and human right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution.'

'The fundamental right to life guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution imposes corollary obligation on the State to safeguard the right to life of every person. The Government hospitals including the CHCs run by the State ought to be institutions which extend medical assistance for preserving human life because preservation of human life is of seminal and paramount importance in the context of right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution. Failure on the part of Government hospitals to provide timely medical treatment to a person in need of such treatment results in violation of right to life of that person guaranteed under that Article'.

You can read the full order below.