HC grants interim stay on Rs 5 lakh fine order on hospital

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday granted an interim stay on the order in which the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on a private hospital for overcharging patients.

The NMC, on August 14, had imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh on the hospital, also a designated COVID-19 facility, for overcharging patients. The civic body had also asked the hospital to return Rs 6.86 lakh in excess charges.

A monitoring team of the NMC had found that the city hospital had allegedly recovered charges in excess of those prescribed by the government from some non-COVID-19 patients.

The hospital moved the High Court challenging the fine order of the NMC.

The petition came before a division bench of Justices Sunil Shukre and Anil Kilor for hearing.

On Thursday, the petitioner, though its counsel Shreerang Bhandarkar, contended in the HC whether the NMC was justified in imposing the penalty and directing the hospital to refund the alleged excess amount to non-COVID-19 patients.

Citing some rules governing private health care providers, Bhandarkar claimed the NMC order was "illegal and arbitrary".

The bench issued notices to the Maharashtra government and the NMC, returnable in two weeks, and granted interim stay of the order imposing penalty on the hospital.