Overview
- At an October 13 hearing, a bench of Justices Ahsanuddin Amanullah and N. Kotiswar Singh ordered Additional Chief Secretaries or senior health officials to appear on November 20 with personally affirmed show-cause affidavits, warning of strict action for noncompliance or perfunctory reports.
- Most States and Union Territories missed the court’s timeline to complete stakeholder consultations by September 30 and submit reports by October 5 despite earlier extensions.
- The defaulting group totals 28, including major States such as Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala and West Bengal, as well as Delhi and Union Territories including Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
- The three-member committee comprising ASG Aishwarya Bhati, amicus Karan Bharihoke and AIIMS professor Dr. Nitish Naik said it cannot finalize ICU/CCU admission, treatment and discharge norms until all jurisdictions file inputs, though it will proceed with available material.
- The push to set uniform ICU/CCU standards stems from a 2016 medical negligence case converted into a PIL, building on model guidelines prepared by the Centre in 2023 that require state-level adoption since health is a state subject.