UP hospital rents coolers for patients during Yogi's visit

Lucknow, Jun 5: For the patients of the otherwise chaotic and filthy Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital in Uttar Pradesh's Allahabad town, the air-coolers on Sunday, when the mercury touched 48 degrees, were no less than a blessing.

They, however, had little idea that the blessing was going to be short-lived. The patients did not know that the air-coolers had been installed in the wards not for them but for the visit of chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

All the air-coolers, which were rented from a private tent house in the town, were removed almost immediately after Adityanath left the hospital. According to the sources, a probe has now been ordered into the matter.

Reports said that the chief minister, who was on a visit to Allahabad on Sunday, went around different wards at the hospital and also interacted with the patients there to know about the problems.

The hospital authorities had installed air-coolers in the wards apparently to impress the chief minister. The authorities, in a bid to hide the name of the rental agency, had put a sticker on the place where it was written.

The air-coolers had stickers displaying 'Junior Doctors' Association' apparently to convey the impression that they had been there courtesy the doctors.

''We thought that the coolers would be there permanently,'' said an attendant of a patient at the hospital. The district administration has ordered an inquiry into the matter, sources said.

The same hospital administration had on Saturday forcibly discharged a seven-year-old gang rape victim from the hospital so that Adityanath might not meet her family.

Earlier also the state officials had installed air-conditioner and sofas at the house of a BSF jawan, who was martyred in Jammu & Kashmir last month, in Deoria district during Adityanath's visit. The AC and other items were removed after the chief minister's visit.

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‘Pay the worker before his sweat dries’: Madras High Court cites Prophet Muhammad’s teaching while ordering settlement of dues

News Network

December 21,2025

Invoking the teachings of Prophet Muhammad—“pay the worker before his sweat dries”—the Madras High Court has directed a municipal corporation to settle long-pending legal dues owed to a former counsel. The court observed that this principle reflects basic fairness and applies equally to labour and service-related disputes.

Justice G. R. Swaminathan made the observation while hearing a petition filed by advocate P. Thirumalai, who claimed that the Madurai City Municipal Corporation failed to pay him legal fees amounting to ₹13.05 lakh. Earlier, the High Court had asked the corporation to consider his representation. However, a later order rejected a major portion of his claim, prompting the present petition.

The court allowed Thirumalai to approach the District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) and submit a list of cases in which he had appeared. It also directed the corporation to settle the verified fee bills within two months, without interest. The court noted that the petitioner had waited nearly 18 years before challenging the non-payment and that the corporation could not be fully blamed, as the fee bills were not submitted properly.

‘A Matter of Embarrassment’

Justice Swaminathan described it as a “matter of embarrassment” that the State has nearly a dozen Additional Advocate Generals. He observed that appointing too many law officers often leads to unnecessary allocation of work and frequent adjournments, as government counsel claim that senior officers are engaged elsewhere.

He expressed hope that such practices would end at least in the Madurai Bench of the High Court and added that Additional Advocate Generals should “turn a new leaf” from 2026 onwards.

‘Scandalously High Amounts’

While stating that the court cannot examine the exact fees paid to senior counsel or law officers, Justice Swaminathan stressed that good governance requires public funds to be used prudently. He expressed concern over the “scandalously high amounts” paid by government and quasi-government bodies to a few favoured law officers.

In contrast, the court noted that Thirumalai’s total claim was “a pittance” considering the large number of cases he had handled.

Background

Thirumalai served as the standing counsel for the Madurai City Municipal Corporation for more than 14 years, from 1992 to 2006. During this period, he represented the corporation in about 818 cases before the Madurai District Courts.

As the former counsel was unable to hire a clerk to obtain certified copies of judgments in all 818 cases, the court directed the District Legal Services Authority to collect the certified copies within two months. The court further ordered the corporation to bear the cost incurred by the DLSA and deduct that amount from the final settlement payable to the petitioner.

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