MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday (October 12) directed the State government to file a response on how long it will take to procure equipment sought by the cardiology department of Government Rajaji Hospital (GRH).

The bench also directed the hospital Dean to file a report on whether mosquito nets have been fitted on the windows of the hospital, and adjourned the case.

The division bench of Justices Velmurugan and KK Ramakrishnan issued the direction while hearing a petition filed by V Karthi, a law student from Madurai. He sought court intervention over alleged shortages of critical cardiac-care equipment and manpower at GRH, contending that denial or delay of timely medical treatment in government hospitals violates the right to life guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The petitioner, a second-year law student at the School of Law, Christ University, Bengaluru, submitted that the Head of the Department of Cardiology, GRH, had sent a letter dated July 2026 to the Director of Medical Education and Research, Chennai. It detailed a requirement of 32 categories of equipment described as necessary for the life-saving, immediate, essential and critical management of patients under the department's care.

For instance, the department has only 24 ICU cots against a documented requirement of 56, and only 16 multiparameter monitors with invasive BP against a requirement of 34. Even when a patient survives an acute cardiac event, the department may lack adequate monitored critical-care bed capacity to safely observe the patient during the following 24 to 72 hours, when cardiogenic complications may recur, he submitted.

The human resources requirement statement also shows that the department has only eight faculty members against a proposed requirement of 18, and lacks adequate numbers of dedicated cath lab, ECG, echo and EP technicians, he pointed out.