The Delhi High Court yesterday constituted a Committee of Doctors and requested it to visit two city hotels to assess the feasibility of using them as extended COVID hospitals. (CHL Ltd vs Govt of NCT of Delhi)
The order was passed by a single Judge Bench of Justice Navin Chawla.
The Court was hearing petitions by the two hotels i.e Hotel Crowne Plaza, Okhla and Hotel Surya, New Friends Colony, raising various issues if they were converted into COVID-19 hospitals.
The hotels flagged issues of the presence of air conditioning, lack of large lifts for using for stretchers, lack of facility for bio-waste disposal etc to oppose their conversion into a hospital.
The hotels also raised concerns of safeguarding its work force that might be required by the hotels for providing service during that time.
It was thus stated that the use of the hotels as extended COVID Hospitals would not be advisable.
The Delhi Government, on the other hand, submitted that these apprehensions were unfounded and looking into the grave situation on account of the pandemic, certain drastic measures had been taken, including the decision to convert the hotels into extended hospitals to treat COVID-19.
The Court observed that the issues raised by the Petitioners had a bearing on whether it was advisable/feasible to use the two hotels as COVID hospitals and whether there might be an adverse impact on the patients or the staff.
It thus opined,
The Court has requested Randeep Guleria, Director, AIIMS and Dr VK Paul, Member, Niti Aayog, to visit the two hotels and give their report on the advisability/feasibility of using these hotels as extended COVID hospitals.
The Court has allowed the two hotels to depute one officer each to highlight their concerns to the Committee.
The Delhi Government has also been allowed to depute its Officers to help the Committee and give their inputs.
The Committee shall also be entitled to take the help/assistance of such other persons as may be deemed necessary in this exercise, the Court has clarified.
The matter would be heard next on June 15.
Petitioner CHL Ltd was represented by Advocates Saurabh Kirpal, Jayant Mehta, Atul Sharma, Sugam Seth, Abu John Mathew, Manubhav Anand.
Petitioner Today Hotels was represented by Senior Advocate Maninder Singh with Advocates Vivek Sibal, Rahul Sharma.
Delhi Government was represented by Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain with Additional Standing Counsel Gautam Narayan and Advocates Dacchita Shahi, Adithya Nair.
Read the Order:
