JIPMER closure for Ram temple ceremony | Madras HC records emergency services will not be disrupted

JIPMER in Puducherry closes until 2:30 pm due to temple consecration, but emergency medical services will continue.

The Madras High Court on January 21 held a special sitting to hear an urgent PIL filed against the decision to close Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry for half a day due to Ram Lalla Pran Pratishtha (temple consecration) at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh on Monday.

The court recorded the submission of JIPMER stating that no elective/planned surgeries were scheduled in the forenoon session of Monday. The institute will be closed until 2:30 p.m. due to the Ram temple consecration.

Also Read | AIIMS Delhi reverses decision to remain closed till 2.30 p.m. on Ram temple ceremony day; clinical services to remain open

Chief Justice Sanjay V. Gangapurwala and Justice D. Bharatha Chakravarthy also recorded the submission of Additional Solicitor General AR.L. Sundaresan, assisted by JIPMER standing counsel M.T. Arunan, that all emergent surgeries, scans and such other medical procedures would be conducted in the forenoon session too in the presence of the medical superintendents.

The submissions were made on instructions from the Deputy Director (Administration) of JIPMER, during the urgent hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by Puducherry resident R. Raja. The petitioner had insisted upon quashing a circular issued by JIPMER on Friday, following a Central Government directive, to close the institute, but for emergency services, till 2:30 p.m. on Monday.

Senior Counsel V. Prakash, representing the PIL petitioner, told the court that JIPMER was a premier institution that tends to the needy and the downtrodden and works round the clock to achieve its goal. All appointments for speciality treatment and tests must be booked online and if such tests could not be undertaken on a particular day, then they get rescheduled after three months, he said.

Also Read | AIIMS Bibinagar to remain shut for half a day on January 22