Hospitals ask Gujarat HC to clarify its order to remove glass facades

AHMEDABAD: Two hospitals have approached the Gujarat high court, seeking clarification of the HC's earlier directions to all the hospitals to remove glass facades immediately.

This direction was issued earlier during the hearing of a PIL filed by petitioner-advocate Amit Panchal for proper implementation of fire safety rules in hospitals after eight Covid-19 patients were killed in a fire at Shrey Hospital in Ahmedabad in August 2020.

The HC ordered the removal of glass facades after a fire broke out in a city hospital, and smoke could not escape from the building due to the glass facade. The HC had also been instructed to adopt preventive measures to keep the ICUs safe from the fire.

Zydus Hospital & Healthcare Research Pvt Ltd and Apex Heart Institute have filed applications. Their advocate Saurabh Soparkar submitted that the hospitals are slightly worried about the order and its impact on their hospital buildings. The glass facade is on the outer side of the buildings and was preferred over a plain wall so that the buildings have direct sunlight to prevent a gloomy atmosphere. The lawyers further submitted that AMC and its fire brigade had approved the buildings' designs.

Objecting to the applications, the petitioner said that a division bench had issued directions to this effect and that entertaining these applications would be judicial indiscipline.

The bench headed by Acting Chief Justice A J Desai opined that the judges who were part of the benches, which passed earlier orders, should form part of the bench to hear these applications. Accordingly, the bench of Justice Ashutosh Shastri and Justice Ilesh Vora has been constituted to hear this issue.