Arham Jain
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case about a viral video that showed a power outage during operation at an emergency ward of Rajendra Hospital in Patiala in January of this year was being heard by the Division Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sumeet Goel.
The Court stated that “It is not surprising but shocking to note that in a public establishment like a hospital where electric breakup of even a few seconds can be fatal for certain patients, especially those on life support, the electric supply was disrupted for 13 minutes though the backup was available but the same took 2 minutes to be functional, because the same had to be operated manually.”
The Court had earlier asked whether the hospital has a backup power source in response to the PIL.
Although a backup system is in place, there isn’t an automated switch-over process, according to information released on January 6. According to a report presented to the Court, the DG set had to be started manually, which resulted in a delay.
In light of this, the Court underlined how important it is for hospitals to have an automated switch-over system in order to smoothly convert from the main power source to the DG set. It also brought attention to another power outage incident at the same hospital and questioned why there was no such mechanism in place.
The Justices viewed that “Learned counsel for the State of Punjab is unable to satisfy us as to why this deficiency of automatic switch-over from the regular supply lines to the DG-Set was not available at the relevant point of time. Petitioner appearing in person has also submitted that recently again on 04.02.2025 another incident of power disruption took place.”
In light of this, the Court ordered Punjab’s Chief Secretary to provide an affidavit resolving the matter. “The affidavit of the Chief Secretary of the State of Punjab is directed to be filed in this respect, which should also contain details of other public establishments which are equipped with automatic switch-over and why not the hospitals.”
The PIL was filed by Advocate Sunaina, present in person.
State was represented by Additional Advocates General Saurav Khurana and Anurag Chopra while the other respondents were represented by Advocates FS Dhilla and Gagneshwar Walia.
The matter will be heard again on February 25, 2025.
Case Name– Sunaina vs State of Punjab and Others
Case Number: CWP-PIL-21-2025
Bench– Chief Justice Sheel Nagu & Justice Sumeet Goel