The Delhi High Court on September 6 asked the Delhi Chief Secretary to file an affidavit explaining the steps taken or proposed to be taken to regulate the pathological laboratories and clinics in the city.



A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice C Hari Shankar asked the chief secretary to file the affidavit giving all the details in three weeks and listed the matter for further hearing on September 27. The court had earlier directed the principal secretary, health department of Delhi government, to explain what steps were proposed to be taken to regulate the laboratories and clinics till a law was enacted to keep a check on such establishments.

The bench was hearing a bunch of PILs alleging that unauthorised laboratories and diagnostic centres were being managed by unqualified technicians and seeking formulation of a policy to regulate such establishments. One of the petitioners, social activist Bejon Kumar Misra, has sought in his plea that as an alternative, guidelines be framed for implementation of the Clinical Establishment (Registration Regulation) Act, 2010 to deal with the issue.

Appearing for Misra, advocate Shashank Deo Sudhi argued that there was a need for urgent action as patients' lives were at stake and a small error in the diagnosis would lead to a threat to their lives. He has contended that unqualified laboratory technicians were not only conducting various tests, but were also coming up with inferences based on unscientific and unqualified outcomes, which undermined the health and safety of people.

The petitioners claimed that the steps taken by the Delhi government till date were only an "eyewash". The high court had, on September 19 last year, said the presence of unauthorised pathological laboratories and clinics in the national capital was a "serious issue".

It had directed the Delhi government to inspect the laboratories and clinics, find out who were running those and under which law were those set up. The court had said when the Supreme Court had made it clear that only post-graduate degree holders in pathology could sign medical test reports, it should have been implemented by now.

Misra, in his plea, has said, "Such illegal labs continue to mushroom in and around Delhi-NCT and it can be easily estimated that the total number of such illegal pathological and diagnostic labs can be anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000, and every street in the capital has such illegal pathological labs." "The National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) under the Quality Council of India (QCI) is optional and not mandatory before the opening of a pathological or diagnostic lab in Delhi," the petition added.