Bombay HC asks BMC to provide details of maternity homes, clinics

The court directed BMC to file an affidavit with names and particulars of maternity homes and clinics in the city that were attending to pregnant women and posted the case for May 22.  (File)

The Bombay High Court directed Friday the BMC to file an affidavit enumerating the clinics and maternity homes offering services to pregnant women in the city and also the number of deliveries conducted by the medical institutions since the lockdown was enforced.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice A A Sayed issued the directions while hearing a PIL filed by advocate Mohiuddin Vaid citing a media report about an incident where an expecting woman was on April 27 refused admission to J J hospital, as she did not have a report certifying her as Covid-19 negative.

Assistant government pleader, Jyoti Chavan, submitted in an affidavit that no such details about the woman, referred to in the news report, were available with J J hospital. Senior counsel Anil Sakhare, for the BMC, said a number of maternity homes and clinics were catering to the needs of expecting women. The court directed BMC to file an affidavit with names and particulars of maternity homes and clinics in the city that were attending to pregnant women and posted the case for May 22.