HC directs State and Wadia's to provide funds for hospital deficit

Mumbai, May 3 (UNI) The Bombay High Court today directed the State and the Nowrozjee Wadia Trust to pay funds to the tune of Rs 1.8 crore and Rs 2.6 crore respectively to the Nowrozjee Wadia Hospital to make up for the losses the Nowrozji Wadia Maternity Hospital at Parel, Mumbai, was incurring.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Kshitij Vyas and Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud directed the State to pay Rs 90 lakh by May 15 and the remaining Rs 90 lakh by May 31, while the Wadia Trust has to make the total payment in the next two weeks.

The said directions were passed in response to a PIL filed by the Lal Bavta Kamgar General Union for recovery of certain amounts, being deducted from their wages as per an earlier court order not to raise the wages of the hospital staff.

Petitioner's counsel Sushil Mahadeshwar contended that the hospital was running into deficit and according to the Trust's constitution, these losses had to be funded by the State government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on a fity-fifty basis. The State had failed to pay a sum of Rs 3.2 crore from the year 2003.

Opposing the petition, Advocate General Ravi Kadam submitted before the court as per the accounts of the hospital, the Trust was providing only about a lakh of rupees a year, while 99 per cent of the deficit had to be made up by the State and the BMC.

He also contended that the amounts that the State and the BMC needed to pay to the hospital amounted to almost Rs two crore a year to the Trust-managed the hospital even while the State and the civic body did not have much say in the running.

The court also held that no deduction be made from the wages of the workers except the statutory cuts.

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