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New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday said the ICMR should look into the complaints received against private pathology laboratories and cancel the license in case of violation of conditions.
The High Court said that it is the ICMR which gives license to the laboratories and it cannot sit in ivory towers.
You have to look into that. You license them. The whole year has passed. The whole country is suffering. Justice Najmi Waziri said that the entire NCR is suffering.
The high court was hearing a plea seeking contempt action against officials for not complying with the Delhi High Court’s earlier direction to take action against online healthcare aggregators, who are operating illegally. and collecting samples for COVID-19 tests.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) said that monitoring the activities of online healthcare aggregators does not come under its purview.
Advocate Shashank Dev Sudhi, representing the petitioner Dr Rohit Jain, argued that common people are dying and ICMR is setting the guidelines but maintains that the issue is not related to the research body.
To this, Central Government Standing Counsel Anurag Ahluwalia replied on behalf of ICMR that they have only said that they are not monitoring the online health aggregators.
He also said that whenever they get a complaint against the private lab, they look into it and take action.
The court, which heard the arguments for some time, listed the matter for further proceedings on September 14.
These standards have to be met. Give you license to run ICMR Lab. You set the standards and gave the license.
The ICMR, in its affidavit filed in response to the contempt petition, has stated that National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) certification is necessary for enrollment of private laboratories for COVID-19 testing and NABL certifies the preparedness of laboratories. does. Molecular testing of RS-Cov-2 before the research body allows them for testing.
The ICMR has said that as of August 16, 2021, it had approved 134 (35 government and 99 private) laboratories in Delhi for RT-PCR, TrueNat, CBNAAT and other M-NAT testing platforms and the information is also available on its website. is available. .
The affidavit filed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Deputy Director General (Administration) Dr R Lakshminarayanan said that ICMR has prescribed SOPs and standard guidance for setting up of COVID-19 testing laboratories and 14 mentor institutes have been created. Established in India to guide laboratories and set up a testing laboratory for implementing these SOPs.
For Delhi, the advisory institute is AIIMS, Delhi, it has said, adding that through these standards, it is ensured that the laboratories meet the statutory standards for COVID-19 testing.
Jain has urged the High Court to allow the contempt petition and stop illegal online healthcare aggregators, which are in contempt of the court’s order passed last year, from collecting clinical samples for COVID-19 tests. Not authorized to collect
The Supreme Court had on April 8, 2020 directed that COVID-19 testing should be conducted in NABL-accredited laboratories or any agency approved by WHO or ICMR.
A division bench of the High Court, on August 6, 2020, had directed the AAP government after hearing all stakeholders to take action as per law against online healthcare aggregators who are operating illegally without any registration.
The petition claimed that this massive illegal sample collection by online healthcare aggregators is leading to false negative COVID-19 results, thereby loosening up the coronavirus positive patients in the society and hence unfortunately giving them the virus. is allowed to spread or spread.
It said there is an urgent need to prevent online health aggregators from illegally collecting clinical samples to save innocent people in the interest of the public at large and action can be initiated against them as seen last year. The court had directed on 6 August.
The plea has sought initiation of contempt proceedings against top government officials and others for alleged non-compliance of the High Court order and regulating online pathological labs.
The petitioner has sought contempt action against Delhi Chief Secretary, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Director General of Health Services and ICMR for allegedly not complying with the High Court order last year.
Sudhi has said that online aggregators like ‘Healthian’ and ‘1mg’ are operating illegally in Delhi.
They have claimed that these online aggregators are playing with the lives of common people and they should be banned.
The petition states that several illegal online aggregators are offering attractive packages for body check-up, including testing of COVID-19 through SMS or various online modes, e-mailed to the petitioner. Advertisements from online aggregators have been received through tested.
The August 6, 2020 direction of the High Court came while disposing of a PIL seeking a ban on allegedly illegal online healthcare aggregators from collecting clinical samples to test for COVID-19 infection. Went.
read also: Breakthrough infection no surprise, vaccines only to prevent serious disease: ICMR doctor
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