New Delhi: Release of PIL for AIDS patients sought

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New Delhi: Release of PIL for AIDS patients sought

Thursday, August 02 2007 00:14(IST)

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Supreme Court today directed the petitioner in

AIDS-related PIL as well as Central Government to file their response

with in six weeks on an application questioning the motive of

Voluntary Health Association of Punjab in filing the PIL.

Joint action counsel Kannur and Kaushalaya had prayed to the court to

dismiss the petition of the Voluntary Health Association, which

according to the applicants, has filed ''a private interest

litigation and not a public litigation.'' According to the applicant,

the petitioner had filed the PIL with ulterior motive to influence

the global community to act against the interest of the citizens at

large of this country while providing a free playing field for a

vested interest group. Hence, the necessity for verifying the

validity of the source and the evidence of any statistical data, can

not be overstated, they contended.

A bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan, Justice R V

Ravindran and Justice Dalveer Bhandari adjourned the hearing after

issuing the notices. According to the government, there are about 52

lakhs HIV positive patients in the country out of which 43,897 are

receiving free ART (entire retroviral therapy).

The government is likely to achieve the target of one lakh for

providing free ART treatment. 20 per cent of patients are likely to

receive private sector services.

States in India identified, as having a high number of patients are

Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Manipur, Nagaland, Maharashtra and Delhi.

The petitioner has prayed to the court to direct the government to

provide medical facilities as well as undertake rehabilitation of the

affected which include adults and children.

http://news.oneindia.in/2007/08/02/dismissal-of-pil-for-aids-patients-

sought-1185994930.html