Apollo Hospitals on Tuesday said the Supreme Court’s order, to constitute a medical board to assist the Justice A Arumughaswamy Commission, fully vindicates the position taken by the healthcare group earlier.

On Monday, the Supreme Court had held it is only ‘just and proper’ to constitute a medical board to assist the inquiry commission, appointed by the Tamil Nadu government, to go into the causes that led to the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai, in December 2016.

In a seven-page order, the bench of Justices Abdul S Nazeer and Krishna Murari has directed the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to nominate a panel of doctors, specialists in the fields of treatment of the ailments as suffered by Jayalalithaa.

The Apex court directed the commission to furnish the medical board with complete records of the proceedings, and also permitted the board to participate in all further proceedings of the commission and furnish a copy of the report to the commission. The order also said a copy of the report would also be furnished to Apollo Hospitals.

Reacting to the order, Apollo Hospitals said, “By its order dated December 20, 2021, the Supreme Court has provided immense relief to the hospital and the medical fraternity, especially doctors who treated the late CM.”

‘Grievances manifold’

Providing a detailed timeline of events, Apollo Hospitals said, the commission was constituted by the State government in 2017 and from its inception, the hospital and doctors have been cooperating in every manner possible to aid the inquiry and offer all assistance to help the fact-finding body complete its inquiry.

“In January 2018, the hospital produced in the commission, 30 volumes of medical records close to 6,000 pages, and all other material relating to the treatment of the late CM in the hospital until her demise on 5th December, 2016. To date, 56 Apollo doctors, 22 paramedical and support staff have submitted their oral evidence,” the hospital group said, adding its grievances against the manner in which the proceedings were being conducted were ‘manifold’.

Plea to form a board

“The primary concern was that the commission was not equipped with the expertise to inquire into highly complex medical facts and the inquiry was going off the rails,” it said. Therefore, the hospital in December 2018, filed an application before the commission requesting that a medical board be constituted to aid the inquiry, Apollo Hospitals said.

In January 2019, the commission dismissed Apollo Hospitals’ plea and the hospital approached the Madras High Court in February 2019, which did not allow it as well.

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“Although the High Court did not allow the plea, in its order dated 04.04.2019, the High Court recorded its finding that Apollo Hospitals had co-operated with the Inquiry in every manner and were forced to approach the High Court seeking reliefs due to the “innocuous” & “bizarre” manner in which the Commission was conducting its Inquiry. The High Court remarked it hoped that this would not reflect in the final report of the Commission,” Apollo Hospitals statement said.

“At no point in time did the hospital seek an order to disband the inquiry/commission. This was/is never its intent,” it added.

Later, the hospital approached the Supreme Court challenging the Madras High Court order.

“The hospital places on record that it has always extended its support of and co-operation in the ongoing Iinquiry and it shall continue to do the same in the proceedings to follow. The hospital is confident that the order of the Supreme Court has buttressed the commission with sufficient checks and balances to enable the inquiry to be now conducted in a fair, accurate, and efficacious manner,” the statement added.

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