A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and Prakash Naik said, "If bills are not paid, hospitals will not survive. But they can surely opt for legal remedies, such as applying section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in cases of cheque bounce.
The Bombay High Court raised a query on Tuesday, asking if confining a patient for non-payment of bills by hospitals would amount to illegal detention and criminal offence. The Association of Hospitals has been directed to inform the court in this regard on the next date of hearing.
A division bench of justices Abhay Oka and Prakash Naik said, "If bills are not paid, hospitals will not survive. But they can surely opt for legal remedies, such as applying section 138 of the Negotiable Instruments Act in cases of cheque bounce.
The association represented by advocate Rui Rodriugues, however, argued, "Principally, we don't agree to confining the patients, but there has to be some solution for non-payment." The Medical Council of Maharashtra, meanwhile, told the court that some authority has to be created, which can resolve issues arising of non-payment of hospitals bills.
The observations were made during the hearing of two petitions challenging the purported practice of detaining patients adopted by some hospitals to recover their dues. One petition was filed by Kurla resident Trevor Britto (54), alleging that Prachin Healthcare Multi-specialty Hospital at Panvel refused to discharge his injured bus driver Chandrakant Pawar.
The other petition was filed by a Santa Cruz resident, who had alleged that the Seven Hills Hospital in Marol refused to discharge his brother for not paying disputed dues of Rs1.80 lakh. Both hospitals have refuted the allegations.
The court has now adjourned the hearing to April 13 and directed the Association of Hospitals to clear its stand on illegally confining patients in hospitals for non-payment of bills.
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