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Delhi

Rape, accident victims not to be denied first aid: HC

In an important directive to prevent loss of life from delayed medical help, Delhi High Court on Thursday ordered the city government to issue notice to all hospitals, including the privately run, not to deny admission to rape and road accident victims for ‘first-aid treatment’.

A division bench of Chief Justice D Murugesan and Justice V K Jain asked the principal secretary of the health department, Delhi government, to issue directions to all the private and government hospitals in the city to not refuse admission to the victims for immediate treatment.

‘We direct principal secretary of health department, government of Delhi, to issue directions to all hospitals including private – recognised or not – to attend the victims of rape and road accidents for immediate first-aid treatment, depending upon the conditions,’ the bench said.

The bench also directed the commissioner of police to immediately take such people to a nearby medical facility instead of the government hospital, which could be far away.

‘The commissioner of police shall also issue immediate direction after an order is passed by the Delhi government. Police to take such persons to nearby hospitals for treatment...,’ the court added.

It further ordered that hospitals ‘should not refuse treatment for the simple reason that the case related to some offence’.

City police counsel Dayan Krishnan told the court that the entire PCR system will be reviewed and guidelines has been issued to make them better.

He further submitted the status report on the role, duties and responsibilities assigned to the PCR officials.

The bench also suggested the police to come out with a system that has GPS installed in it to track the location of suspected vehicles.

It asked the police to take help from Infosys or TCL for the software.

The court was suo moto hearing the case of 16 December, 2012, gang rape case. A 23-year-old woman succumbed to the brutal gang-rape and torture in a moving bus in a Singapore hospital 29 December, sparking a nation-wide outrage.
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