By Admin 
The Supreme Court told Indraprastha Apollo Hospital on Tuesday (March 25, 2025) that if he did not give free treatment to poor patients, it would be done under the control of AIIMS. Apollo is accused of compromising on the condition of giving free treatment to poor patients. In the posh area of Delhi, Indraprastha Medical Corporation Limited (IMCL) was given land on a rupee, on which Apollo Hospital has been built. Land on lease was given on the condition that free treatment will be given to poor patients there.
According to PTI report, Justice Suryakant and Justice N. Kotishwar Singh were hearing the bench case. The bench took a serious violation of the lease agreement, under which Apollo Hospital had to recruit one -third of poor patients and 40 % of patients in the Department of External Diseases had to treat free treatment without any discrimination. The court said that if free treatment will not be made available to poor people in Delhi at Indraprastha Apollo Hospital, then it will ask the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to take it under its control.
The court said that this land was given by the Apollo group on a symbolic lease of one rupee for a hospital built on 15 acres of land in the posh area of Delhi and was to be run on a formula without profit and loss, but it has become a pure commercial venture, where poor people are able to get treatment hardly.
The lawyer, appearing for IMCL, said that the hospital is being run as a joint venture and the Delhi government has a 26 % stake in it and has also benefited from earning. Justice Suryakant told the lawyer, “If the Delhi government is earning profits from the hospital instead of taking care of poor patients, then this is the most unfortunate thing.”
The Supreme Court said that the hospital was given land for 30 years and the period of this lease was to be terminated in 2023. The Supreme Court asked the Center and the Delhi government to find out whether its lease agreement was renewed or not. The Supreme Court was hearing a petition by IMCL, in which the Delhi High Court’s order of September 22, 2009 was challenged. The High Court had said that the hospital administration has violated the condition of the agreement to provide free treatment to the interiors (indoor-colored) and outdoor (outdoor) poor patients.
The Supreme Court asked the Center and the Delhi government that if the lease agreement has not been increased, then what legal exercise has been done in relation to the said land. The bench also asked the number of existing total beds in the hospital and asked for a record of OPD patients in the last five years.