Chennai: Apollo Hospital had filed a plea in the Madras High Court seeking to restrain the Justice Arumughaswamy Commission from going into the medical treatment provided to late Tamilnadu chief minister Jayalalithaa during her hospitalisation in 2016.
However, yesterday, the panel opposed the plea at the court. The commission’s Secretary S Komala filed the counter affidavit.
After recording the evidences and after cross examinations, the petitioner was barred from disputing the ToR of the commission at this distant point of time, said the panel.
Also it said that the probe had almost reached the final stage and it was too late to oppose it from looking into the treatment aspects. The commission said it acted within the ambit and scope of the reference and never exceeded its limits.
Apollo Hospitals has already questioned the technical qualification of the commission to go into the medical nuances of the case.
In the circumstances, it prayed to the Madras High Court today to form an independent team of 21 medical experts – who are not from government hospitals – to go into the treatment given to Jayalalithaa. It has cited the Tamilnadu government, V K Sasikala and the Arumughaswamy Commission as respondents in the case.
The hospital alleged the panel was prejudiced against it. On 11 February, the court had declined to pass any interim orders on the petition and directed the commission to file its counter affidavit.
The affidavit said Apollo Hospital had filed medical records and facilitated the depositions of its doctors, technicians and consultants and so far 147 commission witnesses, including 56 doctors of the hospital and consultants from AIIMS, Delhi, have been examined and counsels for the hospital and V K Sasikala too had been cross-examined.
“The efficacy, adequacy or inadequacy in the treatment provided to the late Chief Minister comes very much within the scope of the ToR,” the commission said.
The panel said it was collecting relevant materials and after its evaluation, the report would be finalised and presented to the government. The court posted the matter to 22 February for the hospital to file its rejoined to the commission’s affidavit.
Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospitals when she lost consciousness and died without responding to treatment after 75 days, on 5 December 2016. The commission was constituted after AIADMK leader and now Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam made that a condition to merge his faction with the party led by Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami.