Madhya Pradesh High Court Directs Digitisation of Medical Records for Bhopal Gas Tragedy Survivors
- Posted on January 9, 2025
- News
- By Arijit Dutta
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The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed the Centre and state government to digitise medical records of Bhopal gas tragedy survivors, following a contempt petition by the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan. Officials must meet within a week to finalise a plan and expedite the process.
The Madhya Pradesh High Court has instructed the Union Health Ministry, the state government, and the Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre (BMHRC) to devise a plan within a week to digitise the medical records of survivors of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy. This directive, issued on January 6, 2025, comes after a contempt petition filed by the Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan highlighting delays in the rehabilitation efforts.
The court’s division bench, comprising Chief Justice SK Kait and Justice Vivek Jain, expressed concern over the lack of progress on the matter, noting the respondents’ apparent lack of urgency. The court ordered the officials from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Madhya Pradesh government, and BMHRC to meet within a week to finalise an action plan. It also mandated that a daily progress report be submitted to the court and called for the immediate release of funds needed to complete the digitisation process.
The court was following up on a previous directive issued in December 2024, which sought the digitisation of medical records dating back to before 2014. The affidavit filed by the authorities indicated that due to the age of the records, only 3,000 pages could be scanned per day, with the process expected to take about 550 days to complete. However, exact timelines would only be determined after the work begins. The government also revealed that a proposal for a cloud server under the e-hospital project had been submitted but was pending financial approval.
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The Bhopal gas tragedy, which occurred on December 2-3, 1984, resulted in the deaths of at least 5,479 people and left thousands more with lasting health complications due to the toxic gas leak from the Union Carbide pesticide plant.
