RAJASTHAN MEDICARE RELIEF SOCIETY, BIKANER Vs. RAJESH GULATI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The defendant-appellant, Rajasthan Medicare Relief Society, Bikaner has preferred this second appeal against the decree of the suit filed by the plaintiffsrespondents Rajesh Gulati and Vivek Sharma, who challenged the levy of registration fees of Rs.5/- for indoor patients and Rs.2/- for outdoor patients in Government Hospital at Bikaner known as P.B.M. Hospital, which was imposed by the appellant-Society, a Society registered under the provisions of Societies Registration Act, 1958, inter alia, on the ground that the same amounted to public nuisance as envisaged under Section 91 of Civil Procedure Code.

(2.) The learned trial court of Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division) No.4, Bikaner dismissed the suit No.57/2001 -Rajesh Gulati & another vs. State of Rajasthan & others on 12.01.2005 by a 16 pages judgment, holding that the defendant Rajasthan Medicare Relief Society was entitled to charge the said Registration fees, as it was incorporated to provide the diagnostic facilities in the said hospital and other Government hospitals at various places in the State of Rajasthan at concessional rates or subsidized rates and to recoup the deficit, inter alia, was also entitled to charge the said registration fees from all the indoor and outdoor patients, while exempting those who are incapable of paying such Registration fees being Below Poverty Line or in the categories of widows, accidental cases, arrested persons or senior citizens over 70 years of age etc.

(3.) The first appeal filed by the plaintiffs, however, came to be allowed by the learned First Appellate Court of Additional District Judge No.2, Bikaner, who allowed the Appeal No.63/2008 Rajesh Gulati and another vs. State of Rajasthan and others by its judgment dated 04.04.2009 and decreed the suit and held that the defendant Society was not entitled to charge the said registration fees.