New Delhi, Oct 17 (PTI) The city government on Monday told the Delhi High Court that it was "actively" taking steps for drafting, finalising and enacting its own law to regulate clinical establishments, including laboratories, here.

The Delhi government was responding to a petition by Bejon Kumar Misra who has alleged that unauthorised laboratories and diagnostic centres in the national capital were being managed in by unqualified technicians.

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In an affidavit, it also stated that provisions of an existing central government statute, Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulations) Act, 2010, are not applicable to the national capital and guidelines have been issued to regulate all laboratories conducting Covid-related tests.

A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad listed the case for consideration on January 11.

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"It is respectfully submitted that the Delhi Health Establishments (Registration and Regulation) Bill, 2022, hereinafter referred to as the Delhi Health Bill, 2022, has already passed through various stages of finalisation," stated the affidavit submitted by the special secretary of the Delhi government's health and family welfare department.

The respondent has been "actively taking steps in furtherance of the drafting, finalisation and enactment of the Delhi Health Bill, 2022…", it stated.

The bill "provides for the regulation of clinical establishments rendering services in recognized systems of medicines in the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, including laboratories, prescribing minimum standards of facilities and services to be provided by them in order to safeguard the interests of patients and health care providers", the affidavit stated.

In its response, the government informed that the city is at present governed by the Delhi Nursing Home Registration Act.

Once the Delhi Health Bill is examined by the law department and finalised, it will be placed in the public domain for inviting suggestions and comments from stakeholders, and subsequently, be placed before the Cabinet and then the lieutenant governor for approval, it said.

Finally, it will be placed before the legislative assembly for its enactment. In the meantime, directions have been issued to regulate both private and government labs conducting Covid-related tests, the government said.

"In the meantime, till the finalisation of the Delhi Health Bill, the respondent department (health department) has passed the order dated 31.05.2022 in order to bring uniformity and standardisation in the functioning of the pathological laboratories in the NCT of Delhi," the affidavit stated.

Bejon Misra's counsel Shashank Deo Sudhi has argued before the court that pathological labs in the city are unregulated which poses a threat to the lives of citizens.

In his plea, he has said, "Such illegal labs continue to mushroom in and around Delhi-NCT and it can be easily estimated that the total number of such illegal pathological and diagnostic labs can be anywhere between 20,000 and 25,000, and every street in the capital has such illegal pathological labs."

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)