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Kerala HC orders the state to consider the grievances raised by the private laboratories before reducing the price of Covid 19 testing kits
The order passed by the Kerala government on reducing the cost of covid19 test kits was stayed by the order of the Kerala High Court. The petition came before the single judge PV Asha filed by the diagnostic society claiming that the price fixed by the government is unreasonable and does not have the authority to do so. The petitioner claims that the cost of the testing kits is high and selling it at such a low price as prescribed by the government would push the labs under loss. Also, the labs are responsible for maintaining highly skilled and trained personal, and providing the service at such a low cost will not be feasible.
Advocate Paul Jacob representing the petitioners relied on SC judgment that private labs can fix the cost as prescribed by the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and contended that the government has no authority to fix the price of testing kits. On the other hand, the state was represented by AG Ranjith Thampan and claimed that said price was fixed after a detailed and deliberate examination of market costs of all the reagents and other elements of testing kits. The prices were in alignment with the prices in other states, the state asserted. The respondent claimed that such price reduction was in the public interest to save people from the hustles of a pandemic.
As stated by the labs the original price of Reverse Transcriptase Polymer Chain Reaction (RTPCR) was Rs, 4,750, and finally reduced to 1,500 by the state through various orders. After hearing both sides the court felt that the problems of the labs are not addressed adequately and directed to charge the kits at Rs 2,100. Meanwhile, the state is ordered to consider the objections raised by the private labs and come into common conscience within three weeks.
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