SC halts order for Delhi government to sign MoU with Centre on health infrastructure scheme
In December, the High Court called for the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission in the national capital.
The Supreme Court on Friday halted a Delhi High Court order from December directing the Delhi government to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Centre by January 5 for implementing the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission, or PM-ABHIM, in the capital, reported Live Law.
A bench of Justices BR Gavai and Augustine George Masih issued the stay and sought a response from the Centre on the Delhi government’s challenge to the High Court ruling.
The PM-ABHIM scheme aims to strengthen healthcare infrastructure. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, or PM-JAY, is a health insurance scheme that is a component of the Ayushman Bharat initiative.
Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, representing the Delhi government, argued that the High Court could not have directed the agreement to be signed, calling it a policy decision. Singhvi contended that the subject of health did not fall within the Centre’s jurisdiction, which is limited to matters of public order, police and land (listed under Entries 1, 2 and 18 in the State List).
Singhvi contended that if the agreement is signed, the Centre would contribute 60% of the capital expenditure, but would not bear the running costs. He also claimed that the Delhi government’s existing health scheme covers a larger population than PM-ABHIM.
The High Court’s order stemmed from a suo motu public interest litigation initiated in 2017 to address a shortage of intensive care unit beds and ventilators in government hospitals. The court had observed that not implementing the PM-ABHIM scheme, when 33 other states and Union Territories had done so, would deprive Delhi residents of the associated benefits.
The High Court had directed that the agreement be signed irrespective of any Model Code of Conduct, considering the scheme’s importance for public health.
Before this, the High Court had criticised Delhi’s insufficient medical infrastructure for critical care and urged the government to launch the PM-ABHIM scheme on a pilot basis before scaling it up later.
