The court had held that such hospitals would be ordered to close down in case they failed to comply with the rules within the stipulated time.

“Notices have been sent to the hospitals today. Most hospitals have been found violating the rules of segregation of waste, and have been given six weeks to comply. Two hopsitals, Poddar Ayurvedic hospital and Dinshaw Petit Animal hospital in Parel do not have authorities, nor are they registered with the board. If they do not comply within four weeks, they will face dire action under Section (5) which means discontinuation of water and electricity and finally closure,” said Ashok Jain, senior law officer and advocate, MPCB.

Last week, the court ordered MPCB to issue notices to M A Podar hospital and Dinshaw Petite animal hospital which are neither registered with MPCB nor have taken any steps to comply with the rules.

A division bench of Chief Justice Swatanter Kumar and Justice J P Devadhar had passed the order based on a report on bio-medical waste (BMW) management submitted to the court last week by two court-appointed commissioners.

The HC-appointed commissioners had inspected government and private hospitals with an officer of the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) and a doctor from the directorate of health services to observe and report the compliance of the BMW rules.

“Issue notices to these hospitals in two days and they should not be permitted to function if they don’t comply within four weeks,” Chief Justice Kumar had told the MPCB.

MPCB has also been directed to issue notices to J J hospital, KEM hospital, Oshiwara Maternity Home, Bhagwati hospital, Sarvodaya Hospital in Chembur and Eye hospital at Kamathipura “to remove all shortcomings and improve performance within 6-8 weeks”.

Chief Justice Kumar said, “In case of non-compliance, the court shall take action including prosecution of senior-most officials of the hospital.”

However, Amitabh Chandra, principal secretary, medical education and drug supply, said, “I am not aware of the MPCB notice. I have read in the papers about the HC order.”

The HC had appointed the commissioners, advocates Shiraz Rustomjee and Uday Warunjikar on November 1, 2007 to inspect the hospitals while hearing public interest litigations filed by Consumer Welfare Association and Mumbai Medwaste Action Group.

After inspecting 40 government and private hospitals in the city, they stated that there is insufficient compliance of bio-medical waste rules.

Rustomjee informed the court that while some of the hospitals had reasonably good levels of compliance, others were extremely poor in their disposal system. He also informed that the compliance level was unsatisfactory in J J hospital and KEM hospital which are two of the biggest hospitals in the city.

When asked about the notice, KEM dean M E Yeolekar said, “Yes. I will be able to tell you the contents of the letter only tomorrow afternoon.”

Warunjikar said that the Oshiwara Maternity Home and the eye hospital at Kamathipura were not complying with the rules.

Rustomjee stated that Sarvodaya Hospital in Chembur with a community care centre dealing exclusively with HIV positive patients, HIV positive BMW was routinely being disposed of through the normal garbage and workers were handling it without proper protection.