The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Centre on a petition seeking strict monitoring of the donations for treatment of AIDS, including the Rs 500 crore promised by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and those by the World Bank to ensure that the money reached the needy.
The public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Rights International (HIV/AIDS) Legal Centre (RILC), which is providing free legal aid to AIDS patients, and also sought a direction to the Union government to at least establish one research institute in every state for treatment of patients suffering from the disease. The petitioner has named Prime Minister Relief Fund, ministries of Home and Health as respondents and all of them were issued notices.
Taking cognisance of a PIL pleading that the donations from various sources for tackling the dreaded disease should be utilised exclusively for establishing hospitals for HIV/AIDS patients according to the wish of the donors, a bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice A K Sikri directed the government to submit its reply by January 7.
The court said the petition would be heard along with a suo motu action writ registered by it a few months ago in a case where a HIV-infected patient was not given admission by various government hospitals in the Capital.
Stating that there is no exclusive government hospital for HIV/AIDS patients even in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, RILC counsel Parmanand Katara said this was one of the reasons AIDS patients did not get proper treatment.
RILC said since the donations were charity and not revenue earned by the government, it should not be "diverted, misused and spent for some other causes."
The apprehension of the petitioner about the "misuse" of the fund arose from the fact that the funds given to MPs for development purposes in their constituencies normally "do not reach the people for whom they are meant."