Even as Supreme Court verdict stated that no person should be denied any kind of benefit in absence of Aadhaar, but the patients at the Dr NC Joshi Hospital are being refused any kind of treatment for not having Aadhaar. The 100-bedded government hospital has been refusing registration of patients in absence of Aadhaar card.

Several patients are being sent back home to fetch their cards. "I took my ill son for treatment, who had been crying in pain due to severe stomach ache but the hospital staff asked me to get his Aadhaar card without which they will not make let him avail the treatment. All this back and forth happened after waiting in the queue for a couple of hours. There were many patients, who did not know about the registration and had to go through this tedious task," said SG Palla, patient's father.

DNA dialled the hospital reception number 011-23611786, where the caller confirmed the accusations by the patients and their attendants, saying that the Aadhaar card number is needed for the registration. On asking that this is not a requisite by the government, she had no answer.

"There are no such directions from the Delhi Health Services and thus it is wrong if the hospital is making Aadhar Card mandatory for the patient registration," said Dr Kirti Bhushan, Directorate General of Health Services.

The issue was highlighted days after a nine-year-old girl from Noida was denied treatment at the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital of the Delhi government for not having an Aadhaar and had to be admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital after intervention from Union Minister of Health, JP Nadda. A statement from the Safdarjung hospital said the girl was admitted to the hospital on October 10 and diagnosed by paediatric neurologist Dr Rachna Sehgal on the directions of the Union health minister.

Past Imperfect