New Delhi: Release of PIL for AIDS patients sought

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Supreme Court today directed the petitioner in AIDS-related PIL as well as Central Government to file their response with in six weeks on an application questioning the motive of Voluntary Health Association of Punjab in filing the PIL.

Joint action counsel Kannur and Kaushalaya had prayed to the court to dismiss the petition of the Voluntary Health Association, which according to the applicants, has filed ''a private interest litigation and not a public litigation.'' According to the applicant, the petitioner had filed the PIL with ulterior motive to influence the global community to act against the interest of the citizens at large of this country while providing a free playing field for a vested interest group. Hence, the necessity for verifying the validity of the source and the evidence of any statistical data, can not be overstated, they contended.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice R V Ravindran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari adjourned the hearing after issuing the notices. According to the government, there are about 52 lakhs HIV positive patients in the country out of which 43,897 are receiving free ART (entire retroviral therapy).

The government is likely to achieve the target of one lakh for providing free ART treatment. 20 per cent of patients are likely to receive private sector services.

States in India identified, as having a high number of patients are Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Nagaland, Maharashtra and Delhi.

The petitioner has prayed to the court to direct the government to provide medical facilities as well as undertake rehabilitation of the affected which include adults and children.

UNI