Take care of HIV victim: High Court to Tamil Nadu

Chennai: Taking into the consideration the sufferings of the victim, who is suffering from HIV for no fault of her, after by mistake, HIV infected blood was  transfused to her, the Madras high court has said it is the duty of the state government to take care of the victim and provide all the medical facilities, besides house, job and compensation.

A division bench comprising Justices N. Kirubakaran and S.S. Sundar gave the directive on the PILs relating to preventing AIDS through blood transfusion and other ways by way of allotting more funds for providing blood safety equipments to the government hospitals.

When the case came up for hearing counsel for the petitioner stated about the fate of the victim and he filed a petition to implead the victim as a party.

After the court directed the authorities to produce the victim, the victim was present before the court on Monday.

The bench said the victim has stated that while transfusing blood in December 2018, by mistake, HIV infected blood was transfused to her and she was suffering from HIV for no fault of her. Therefore, she has been admitted in Government Rajaji Hospital, Madurai  and thereafter, she delivered a baby girl on January17, 2019, and she was under the care of the government. The blood sample taken from the child would reveal that the child was not infected, the bench added.

The bench said the victim submitted that though her husband met her, he was not showing any interest towards her and he was not allowing her elder daughter to see her for two months. The husband of the victim suspects that even allowing the elder daughter to be with the victim would make the child contact with HIV. It shows that the husband of the victim also needs counseling, the bench added.

The bench said, "Taking into consideration the sufferings of the victim for no fault of her, it is the duty of the government to take care of the victim and provide all the medical facilities. Since the husband of the victim is not looking after her and is not showing any interest to live with her, it is appropriate for the government to provide a house, a permanent government job, compensation for the mental agony and suffering, pain and sorrow, she is undergoing, so that, it can be kept in an interest bearing fixed deposit till her life time and she could be allowed to withdraw the accrued interest only and to continue the medical facilities till her life time. Till the government job is provided to the victim, she should be given a monthly amount along with every month medicines".

The victim submitted that she was a B.Com graduate and she was qualified in typewriting in English.

Therefore, it was expected that a job in tune with her educational as well as technical qualification should be provided by the government.

"Since the elder daughter of the victim is separated for the past two months, she is in depression and she is fond of seeing her elder daughter and therefore, the husband as well as the elder daughter of the victim have to be produced before this court on March 27. Based on the statements given by the victim, this matter is taken up as a suo motu writ petition for the purpose of giving reliefs to the hapless victim. Registry is directed to process and assign number to this suo motu PIL", the bench added.