Allahabad HC stays UP govt's suspension of Sanjay Gandhi hospital licence

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court has stayed the Uttar Pradesh government's order suspending the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi over the death of a 22-year-old woman after a surgery.

A division bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Manish Kumar said that inquiry against the hospital would go on, and asked the state government to file its counter-affidavit.

The court passed the order on a writ petition filed by the hospital's Chief Operating Officer Avadhesh Sharma against the government's order.

Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel J.N. Mathur argued that the suspension order was not sustainable as it was passed "due to political reasons".

The state government contended that the hospital had no licence to conduct surgeries but it was doing so and hence the incident, in which a woman died after a minor surgery, took place.

"The licence has rightly been suspended and the inquiry is going on before passing the final order," State counsel Rahul Shukla said.

On September 18, the Health Department suspended the licence of Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in the Munshiganj area of Amethi and halted OPD and emergency services, days after the death of a woman patient following an operation.

The hospital is run by Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust headed by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

Manoj Muttu, administrator of the trust, told reporters that a copy of the court's order will be submitted to the Chief Medical Officer of Amethi and as per the CMO's directions, functioning of the hospital will resume.

However, Muttu said he would like the hospital to resume functioning from Thursday.