Telangana High Court issues notices on Osmania General Hospital relocation to Goshamahal police stadium

The judge questioned the petitioner on the rationale behind making the Chief Minister a party to the writ petition and directed the high court registry to remove the Chief Minister’s name from the list of respondents, highlighting the need for careful consideration of inclusion of parties to the legal proceedings.

LEGAL CORRESPONDENT 

Hyderabad: Justice B Vijaysen Reddy of Telangana High Court on Tuesday issued notices to Telangana Home department, Medical Health & care department, Hyderabad District collector and others in a matter pertaining to shifting of Osamania General Hospital (OGH) to Goshamahal Police stadium. Munukuntla Anand Goud filed this writ plea challenging the actions of Telangana State Chief Minister Anumula Revanth Reddy, Home department, Medical Department, Hyderabad district Collector, OGH superintendent, Director of Kaloji Narayan Rao university and others in shifting the Osmania General Hospital from existing place to Goshamahal Police Stadium by exposing the residents in the vicinity of Goshamahal to hardship, inconvenience and exposure to environmental hazards.

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The judge questioned the petitioner on the rationale behind making the Chief Minister a party to the writ petition and directed the high court registry to remove the Chief Minister’s name from the list of respondents, highlighting the need for careful consideration of inclusion of parties to the legal proceedings. The judge inquired with the state counsel, whether the building at the new site was fully ready to accommodate the hospital’s operations? Why are you shifting?, judge further questioned. In response, the Advocate General A. Sudarshan Reddy clarified that the decision to relocate the OGH hospital was based on the unfitness of the current building for continued operations. He emphasized that the move was necessary due to the inability of existing facilities to meet the required standards for Hospital functioning. The judge concurred with the Advocate General’s reasoning, affirming that the government has the rightful authority to relocate the hospital in order to provide better facilities and more effective treatment to the public and recalled the instance of relocating the High Court.

The Judge noted that, the proceedings regarding heritage status of hospital building is pending consideration before the division bench and observed it would not be appropriate to address the matter here. It is known that the division bench, which heard the case about heritage status on Monday granted additional time at the request of the AG to submit a detailed response. The judge posted the case to February 18 for hearing the AG on the reasons for shifting and the suitability of the relocation place.