HARSHAD J PABARI Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Application under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, in the nature of a Public Interest Litigation, has been filed by a resident of Jamnagar and who is also an Editor of a local weekly newspaper "Samay Ka Samna", bringing it to our notice that the respondent-authorities failed to maintain the confidentiality of the identity of a female patient who had come for treatment of HIV positive/AIDS, at Guru Gobindsingh Government Hospital, Jamnagar, thereby leading to serious social repercussions.

(2.) The case made out by the petitioner in this petition may be summed up thus :

(3.) The lady had got herself admitted in the hospital for treatment and was first attended and examined by one Dr.Nalini Anand, the Head of the Gynaecology Department, and one Dr.Dipti Joshi. Her medical examination revealed that she was in her two months' pregnancy, and since she was HIV positive, the doctors were of the view that it was advisable to abort the pregnancy. Accordingly, the woman accompanied by her daughter and mother-in-law visited the hospital for abortion. After her admission in the hospital, a nurse named Prafulla Ramani pasted a label on the forehead of the woman with HIV positive written on it and was asked to stand separately away from the queue of other patients. A health activist named Nisha Jani of Jamnagar spotted the woman with such a label on her forehead and alerted her colleagues.