The High Court of Karnataka on Tuesday termed as ‘sorry state of affairs’ the State government’s failure to install an MRI scan machine at Dharwad Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (DIMHANS) even though it is more than two years since the court issued direction for installation of the machine.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice S.R. Krishna Kumar made these observations while giving time till April 21 for the Government to install and operationalise the machine, which was delivered to DIMHANS on March 28 on being imported from the U.S.
Taking serious note of the breach of assurance given to the court on March 3, 2022 that the machine would be installed by March 30, the Bench dictated the order to withhold disbursement of salary to Naveen Raj Singh, Principal Secretary, Medical Education Department, till the machine is installed and operationalised.
However, Additional Advocate General Dhyan Chinnappa later made a request to the Bench to recall the order of withholding salary of the Principal Secretary, who had assumed the post only a few months ago. The AAG assured the Bench that the machine would be installed by April 21, the next date of hearing while pointing out that 75% of the civil work to install the machine is already completed. The Bench accepted AAG’s request and said that order would be modified accordingly.
The Bench was hearing a PIL petition, filed in 1996 by the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority, through which the court is monitoring facilities being provided to treat mentally ill persons across the State.
The court way back on March 5, 2020, set a deadline of six weeks for the Government to procure the MRI machine, and the court has been expressing serious displeasure over the delay in procurement of the machine and operationalising DIMHANS as higher psychiatric centre.
