Mumbai: The Bombay High Court on Wednesday ordered the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) and the Pune civic body to pass a "reasoned order" explaining why Thyrocare Technologies Ltd, a private Covid-19 testing lab, has been asked to stop conducting the tests.
The bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Abhay Ahuja has granted a week's time to the two civic bodies to pass an order, only after hearing the other side.
"We are of the opinion that though the civic bodies may be justified in acting in public interest immediately after receipt of certain information, however, if an order is going to be passed against Thyrocare, for a longer duration, considering the consequences, the lab would be entitled to a hearing," the bench said. "Thus, before passing a final order, Thyrocare should be given a personal hearing by the corporation and the outcome with reasons be communicated to it," the judges added.
The bench was seized with a petition filed by Thyrocare, challenging the notices issued to it by the NMMC and the PMC asking the laboratory to discontinue sample collection and Covid testing.
Thyrocare, through its advocate T J Pandian argued that it was not given a proper hearing before suddenly asking it to discontinue its work.
According to the civic authorities, they asked the lab to discontinue with testing work as they had received complaints regarding discrepancies in the reports published or issued by Thyrocare.
Notably, Thane and Mumbai civic bodies too had issued similar notices to Thyrocare after receiving complaints regarding the discrepancies in their reports.
