Plea in SC seeks refund of 'exorbitant amount' charged for Covid tests

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking directions for the immediate refund of the "exorbitant amount" charged for RT-PCR test of Covid-19 by private labs and hospitals across the country.

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court on Saturday seeking directions for the immediate refund of the "exorbitant amount" charged for RT-PCR test of Covid-19 by private labs and hospitals across the country. The plea, filed by advocate Ajay Agrawal, also prayed the apex court to fix a uniform rate of Rs 400 for RT-PCR test across the country, as is done by the Odisha government.

This comes even as another petition, filed by Agarwal, is pending before the Supreme Court seeking directions to cap the cost of RT-PCR tests for testing suspected Covid-19 patients at Rs 400 across the country. A three-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde, had on November 26 issued notice to the Central government seeking its response.

The earlier plea had claimed that different rates are being charged across the country whereas the cost of the test actually works at just Rs 200. It had said the cost of the RT-PCR test was fixed between Rs 900 to Rs 2,800 by various state governments, Union Territories, and NCT of Delhi. "There is a big loot by laboratories and they are minting money to the tune of crores and crores of rupees. The margin of profit is so high as it is as high as 1,400 per cent in Andhra Pradesh and 1,200 per cent in Delhi," the previous plea said.

"The matter is concerned with 135 crore citizens of the country as everybody is worried about the coronavirus and forced to get their test done at this exorbitant price," it added. (ANI)

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