Lawyers assures HC of helping rickshawpuller`s son`s treatment

New Delhi: The lawyers` association today assured the Delhi High Court that it will ask its members and advocates to contribute towards treatment of the seven-year-old son of a rickshawpuller suffering from Gaucher disease, a genetic disorder.

The Delhi High Court Bar Association`s president A S Chandiok assured Justice Manmohan during the hearing of a case that he will issue a notice asking lawyers to contribute towards the cause. The assurance was given after Justice Manmohan mentioned to him about a petition pending before him and asked him to see if the Bar can do its bit. The bench asked him to coordinate with advocate Ashok Agarwal, who is pursuing the case of free treatment for the child. Yesterday, when the petition had come up for hearing, the court had suggested the lawyer community to help the child. The child has been denied treatment at AIIMS due to lack of finances and is now confined at his modest home in need of aid. AIIMS has said it has no provision of providing free treatment to such patients. The father of the ailing child has already lost his four children, who were suffering from the same disease. Gaucher`s disease is a genetic disorder which causes fat to accumulate in cells and certain organs and is characterised by bruising, fatigue, anaemia, low blood platelets and enlargement of the liver and spleen. Some forms of Gaucher`s disease may be treated with enzyme replacement therapy. The petition says, "Whether AIIMS being a government hospital is under constitutional obligation to provide free treatment to the patients who cannot afford it because of heavy cost involved. "Or poor patients can be left to the mercy of God if they are not in a position to meet the cost of the treatment and whether the respondents 1 (Centre) and 2 (Delhi government) are under duty to arrange for the continuous and uninterrupted treatment of the patients."