Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J. - (1.) Employees of the Police Department of the State, twenty one in number, who are posted as Head Constables and Constables in the three districts (Bathinda, Patiala and Hoshiarpur) have invoked writ jurisdiction of this Court by filing three writ petitions. CWP No. 16542 of 2009 titled as 'HC Kashmir Singh and others v. State of Punjab ' has been preferred by 9 Head Constables and 1 Constable deployed by the Police Department in District Bathinda; CWP No. 1384 of 2010 titled as 'HC Darshan Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others ' has been preferred by 10 Head Constables posted in District Patiala and CWP No. 4508 of 2011 has been instituted by Constable Ram Lubhaya discharging his duties at District Hoshiarpur. All these 21 police officials are suffering from Hepatitis C and B, HIV etc. They were diagnosed as critical patients. They were to be administered Pegylated Interferon alfa-2b injections for a duration of six months or one year, as the Doctor may prescribe. Depending upon the condition of the patient, number of injections to be administered was to vary from 24 to 48. The cost of each injection being exorbitant, a poor employee not in a position to spend the amount of treatment from his resources, made a prayer that the Court should order hundred percent advance reimbursement of the cost of injection.
(2.) Initially these writ petitions were filed challenging the Government instructions, whereby disbursement in advance of total cost of treatment was limited up to seventy five percent and the remaining expenditure of twenty five percent was to be reimbursed after the employee had spent the same, on the ground that an employee cannot be allowed to die for want of funds, and therefore, a prayer was made that 100 percent cost of injections to be purchased by the employee be paid in advance. The interim order dated 29th October, 2009 passed in CWP No. 16542 of 2009 titled as 'HC Kashmir Singh and others v. State of Punjab ' has already taken care of this grievance of the petitioners to that writ petition. In other two writ petitions, no such interim orders were Civil Writ Petitions No. 16542 of 2009; 1384 of 2010 and 4508 of passed. However, for the injections to be administered in future we have to determine as to whether an employee is entitled to 100 percent advance payment towards the cost of injections or not.
(3.) In the reply filed to the present petitions, another objection has been raised by the Accounts Wing of the Police Department regarding the cost of injection. A specific plea has been raised that the employees have been charged by the Chemists at the rate of Rs. 10,900/- per injection, whereas these injections are available at the Medical Colleges and Hospitals of the State at Amritsar, Patiala and Faridkot at the rate of Rs. 6,300/- per injection, and thus, the bills submitted by the petitioners can be settled only at the rate of Rs. 6,300/- per injection. These being the broad features of these cases, we have been called upon to answer the following two questions : (1) Whether the petitioner-employees are entitled to 100 percent advance payment of total cost of medical treatment as out door patients for critical/dreaded illness suffered by them? (2) On the facts of these cases, at what rate the payment of injections is to be made to the petitioners ?;