KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 2

The Supreme Court today registered a contempt of court case against Minister of Health and Population Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal for allegedly defying the SC directive to the government to provide diagnostic and therapeutic services to COVID patients free of cost.

Writ petitioners advocates Lokendra Oli and Keshar Jung KC had filed the case making both Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Health and Population Minister Dhakal defendants, but the court official told the petitioners that since the PM was not named a defendant in the original case, he should not be named a defendant in the contempt of court case either.

The petitioners then removed the PM’s name from the defendants’ list.

The petitioners argued in their petition that the SC, in response to their earlier petition, had directed the government to provide diagnostic and therapeutic service for free, but the government recently decided to charge people for diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, disobeying of the court order. The first hearing of the case has been scheduled for tomorrow.

The government had decided to bear the cost of single women, differently-abled citizens, senior citizens, frontline health workers, sanitation staffers, security personnel, the poor and helpless.