Bombay HC forms panel to review deaths in Nanded, Sambhaji Nagar government hospitals

Bombay High Court forms expert committee to investigate patient deaths in Maharashtra hospitals, focusing on infrastructure and medical facilities.

The Bombay High Court on Thursday (March 27, 2025) formed a five-member expert committee who can visit government hospitals in Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar districts of Maharashtra to recommend short and long-term measures to ensure patients do not die anymore due to lack of medical facilities.   

A Division Bench of judges, Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice M.S. Karnik was hearing a suo moto Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the deaths of at least 45 patients at the government hospitals of Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar districts of Maharashtra in 2023.  

The Bench said that the expert panel committee which includes the Secretary of Medical and Health Sciences, the Director of Health Sciences, and the Deans of J.J. Medical College, Nanded Medical College and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Medical College, will focus on addressing the issues that led to over 31 deaths, including that of infants, at Government Medical College in Nanded and 14 deaths at Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar Government Hospital in October 2023. They will visit the hospitals to examine the reasons for the deaths, check the infrastructure and medical facilities in the hospitals and submit a comprehensive report within two months’ time with suggestions that such incidents do not occur in the future.   

“The issue is serious. We do not want it to reoccur. Hence, certain short-term and long-term measures need to be taken. We request the committee to visit the two hospitals and submit a report on the infrastructure and medical facilities,” the court observed and kept the matter for further hearing on June 16, 2025.  

Earlier, the State government had informed that they did not find any gross negligence by the government hospitals, in fact the hospitals are overwhelmed by large number of extremely critical patients and most of them are referred from private hospitals and smaller clinics.   

But the amicus curiae in the case, Mohit Khanna submitted to the court that the State government has not utilised the budget allocated for the health department and the vacancies of doctors and nursing staff in the hospitals are not filled.