The Bombay High Court has recently taken up a long-standing Public Interest Litigation concerning deficiencies in medical care and allied services in tribal areas of Maharashtra, including the Melghat region. A division bench, comprising Justices Revati Mohite Dere and Sandesh Dadasaheb Patil, directed relevant state-level officials to personally visit Melghat with a mandate to assess the health-care and welfare grievances raised by residents, and to report back to the court. The bench’s directive underscores the urgency and seriousness of systemic neglect in these tribal belt regions.
The petition before the court — filed originally in 2007 — highlights a sustained crisis in tribal districts, where numerous women and children have died over the years owing to chronic lack of proper medical facilities, malnutrition and institutional failings. During the hearing, the petitioners laid bare fundamental deficits: severe shortage of specialist doctors such as physicians, paediatricians, gynaecologists, radiologists and pathologists; inadequate staffing of nurses and support staff at primary health centres and sub-centres; inconsistent or absent supply of nutritious food to children between 1–6 years; failure to provide required dietary supplements to pregnant and lactating mothers; deficient sanitation and safe water access; lack of electricity supply to rural health infrastructure; dilapidated Anganwadi and child-care facilities; and a broader pattern of administrative and institutional neglect.
In response, the Principal Secretary of the State’s Public Health Department, along with senior officials of the Tribal Development Department and Women & Child Development Department, undertook to visit Melghat on December 5 to evaluate the ground realities. The Court ordered that this visit must be accompanied by other senior officers — including a deputy secretary from Public Works Department, a deputy secretary from Finance, a deputy secretary for Water and Sanitation, the Project Officer of Melghat, the Chief Executive Officer of Amravati district, and the Deputy Conservator of Forests — anticipating that many issues intersect health, infrastructure, sanitation, water supply and environmental regulation. The bench mandated that affected petitioners should be informed of the visit so they could accompany the official delegation to assist and indicate local grievances firsthand. The Court directed that a consolidated report be submitted before it by December 18.
During the hearing, the court heard detailed submissions from petitioners regarding institutional failures in the region. The petitioners contended that the sub-district and rural hospitals — especially in areas like Dharni, Chikhaldara and other tribal blocks — suffer from critical staff shortages. They pointed out that at least 38 key medical posts remained vacant. They reported alarming statistics: between April and October 2025 alone, numerous child deaths, several still-births and maternal deaths had been recorded in districts like Amravati. They also decried the absence of a blood-bank, blood-collection or supply mechanisms in rural blocks, making routine or emergency care dangerously inadequate. In one rural hospital in Chikhaldara block — responsible for around 40 villages — there is reportedly no pediatrician or gynecologist, while sonography services are limited to once a week. They argued that such deficits, coupled with poor sanitation, lack of infrastructure, and malnutrition, exacerbate the health crisis in the tribal areas.
The petitioners also drew attention to poor implementation of nutrition-supplement schemes, irregular or deficient supply of quality food to children and expectant or nursing mothers, and failure to maintain and fund Anganwadi centers, many of which date back to the 1970s and remain structurally and functionally inadequate. They urged immediate remedial measures, including adequate staffing of medical professionals, better funding, infrastructure overhaul, consistent nutrition and food-security schemes, reliable power supply to health facilities, and close monitoring of health outcomes. They also stressed the need for improved maternal and child health services, timely prenatal and postnatal care, and a systemic overhaul of health and sanitation services in the region. Many of the petitioners have urged the Court to ensure that government commitments are converted into tangible action and preventive measures.
During the hearing, the bench expressed deep concern about irregularities with outsourcing through agencies — particularly noting how outsourced ambulance-drivers and other staff were being underpaid despite the sanctioned amounts. The bench criticized such subcontracting regimes, noting that employment through agencies often results in meagre pay and poor service delivery, thereby defeating the purpose of public-service schemes. The judges underscored that when government agencies outsource critical medical and welfare services in tribal belts, they must ensure that the benefits — including prescribed wages and service levels — actually reach the beneficiaries. The bench directed that outsourced staffing must be fair and transparent.
Given the scale and gravity of the issues raised, the High Court’s order to send officials for on-ground inspection marks a significant step in judicial monitoring of tribal welfare. The Court’s ordering of a multi-departmental team to visit and report what they find suggests an institutional attempt to address systemic failures — monitoring, accountability and enforcement of service delivery norms. By doing so, the court intends to ensure that tribal residents no longer remain excluded from the basic rights to health, nutrition, sanitation and dignity.
The matter has been adjourned, with the next hearing scheduled following submission of the inspection report. The High Court’s direction reflects a continuing judicial commitment to safeguard the constitutional rights of tribal populations and to hold the state accountable for persistent deprivation of essential services in remote and marginalized areas.
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