The plaintiff filed a guarantee of protection of individual constitutional rights (amparo protection) in the name of her son, who suffered from Kostmann’s disease, a severe bone marrow defect. Because of this disease, the plaintiff’s son was entirely dependent on a medicine called Neutromax 300. From June 1996 to December 1998, the National Bank of Antineoplastic …Read more

Dina Rosa Vieira brought the case against the municipality of Porto Alegre for failing to provide medication for the treatment of AIDS. Vieira was destitute and unable to afford the medication herself. The first instance court ruled in favor of Vieira and ruled that in light of the constitutional principles protecting the right to health …Read more

Five youths, three of whom were minors, were “street children” abducted, tortured, and killed by State security agents.  The children lived in a sector of the city where violence and crime rate were high and where State officials commit illegal acts against “street children,” including “threats, arrests, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and homicides as …Read more

In 1991, representatives of the indigenous Enxet-Lamenxay and Kayleyphapopyet-Riachito communities commenced administrative proceedings against the Government of Paraguay to recover what they claimed was ancestral land that Paraguay had largely sold to foreigners in the years between 1885 and 1950. The petitioners described the land as “their main sustenance came from hunting, fishing, and gathering.” The …Read more

Under Article 20(2) of the Interim Constitution 2063 in Nepal, every woman in Nepal had the fundamental right to reproductive health. However, there were no effective health services addressing the issue of uterine prolapse, a serious ailment affecting nearly 600,000 women in Nepal. The Petitioners, among others, Pro-Public, an organization working in the area of …Read more

The constitutionality of law n° 99-641 of July 23, 1999 Loi portant création d’une couverture maladie universelle (Act Creating Universal Health Coverage), was challenged in the Conseil Constitutionnel. The Act was structured as follows: Article 1 created universal health insurance, guaranteeing everyone care under a health insurance scheme. Low income earners were given the right …Read more

The Petitioner, S.K. Garg, filed a writ petition in the Allahabad High Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India (original writ jurisdiction of High Courts). The petition brought to the Court’s attention the appalling and unhygienic condition of Government hospitals in the city of Allahabad. It was alleged that indigent patients had been …Read more

The Appellant, Meenakshi Pharma Distributors, had conducted various transactions with the authorities of the State of Karnataka for the sale of drugs. The contract stipulated that “if the payment is delayed beyond the period of 30 days, interest shall be payable at the rate of 15 per cent.” However, the trial court reduced the rate …Read more

Through a representative, 418 parents, inhabitants of the sector of Puenta Aranda in Bogota, filed a tutela against the national and district health authorities alleging that the authorities’ failure to provide a free vaccination program against meningitis violated the duty to protect the health of their children. The Plaintiffs were poor, worked in the informal …Read more

Carpet industries in Uttar Pradesh employed children, under the age of 14, where they were “being treated as slaves” and were “subjected to physical torture.” This writ petition was filed in the Supreme Court under Article 32 as a public interest matter. The Court immediately commissioned a report to determine whether children under the age …Read more

Mrs. Shantha, the Petitioner, was admitted to the Government Maternity Hospital for a caesarian section. She was affected sterilization after the caesarian section. On leaving the hospital after the operation, she felt abdominal discomfort leading to very severe pain. Following medical examination, it was discovered that surgical equipment had been left inside the Petitioner’s abdomen …Read more

The Petitioner, MX, was a casual labourer working for the Respondent, M/s ZY, a State owned corporation. Before his employment could be regularized, the Respondent required the Petitioner to undergo medical tests, including tests for HIV antibodies. The Petitioner passed all fitness requirements presented in the examination except those for HIV antibodies. The Respondent, upon …Read more

The Applicants were four prisoners living with HIV. They sought an order declaring that prisoners living with HIV who had reached the symptomatic stage of the disease and whose CD4 counts was less than 500 per milliliter of blood were entitled to receive appropriate antiretroviral treatment at the Government’s expense. They noted that Section 35(2)(e) …Read more

The Applicant, Hakim Seikh, fell from a train one evening and suffered severe head injuries. He approached, and was turned away from, six different hospitals during the course of this evening. Hakim eventually spent Rs. 17,000.00 for treatment at the Calcutta Medical Research Institute. The hospitals kept turning him away because they claimed not to …Read more

The Petitioner, a Colombian national living with HIV, filed an appeal for legal protection against the Colombian Social Security Institute. The Petitioner claimed that his right to medical services was threatened when a doctor at the Cali Social Security Institute informed him that his treatment would cease in 30 days. However, medical directors at the …Read more

The plaintiffs brought a class action lawsuit on behalf of themselves and about 6,000 other homeless persons against the City of Miami, Florida. They claimed that by arresting and seizing the property of the plaintiffs, the City’s police officers violated the plaintiffs’ rights under the United States and Florida Constitutions. The plaintiffs claimed that it …Read more

Petitioner, physician Michael Burditt, appealed a $20,000 civil penalty determination made by respondent, the Executive Appeals Board of Department of Health and Human Services, for the petitioner’s violation of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA). On December 5, 1986 at 4:00pm, Ms. Rosa Rivera arrived at the emergency room of DeTar Hospital …Read more

The Petitioner was an individual concerned about the high rate of employment of children in the Match factories of Sivakasi in Kamaraj District of the State of Tamil Nadu. Petitioner contended that such employment was hazardous and unconstitutional. He filed a writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution seeking educational, medical and health facilities …Read more

Shriram Foods and Fertiliser Plant, Delhi (Shriram) was situated amidst a population of 200,000 people. It manufactured items such as glycerin soap, and technical hard oil. The petitioner, M.C. Mehta, filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court to obtain an order for closure of the plant and its relocation to an area where it …Read more

In response to increasing projected state Medicaid costs, the directors of the Tennessee Medicaid program decided to implement a number of cost saving measures. Among these measures was a proposed reduction in the number of annual days of inpatient hospital care covered by the program from 20 to 14 days per fiscal year. Respondents, Tennessee …Read more

Chief Bernard Ominayak (the “author”) was the leader and representative of the Lubicon Lake Band (the “Band”), a Cree Indian Band living in the Province of Alberta in Canada. He argued that the State party expropriated Lubicon land for commercial interest despite its recognition that the Band members had the right to continue their traditional …Read more

The Petitioner was an ‘an organisation dedicated to the cause of release of bonded labourers’. It conducted a survey in stone quarries and mines in Faridabad district. It found that several workmen in these mines were migrant workers from other States in India who were ‘bonded labourers.’ They were living in conditions of abject poverty. …Read more

The Respondents brought this suit challenging the constitutional validity of § 1903(f) of the Social Security Act (the Act); they claimed it violated the equal protection component of the Fifth Amendment. Under the Medicaid program, States were required to provide Medicaid coverage to certain individuals described as the “categorically needy” and, at their discretion, could …Read more

Appellant, Brenda Payton, suffered from end stage renal disease and required weekly dialysis. She also suffered from drug addition, mental illness, and poverty. She brought action against respondents, physician John C Weaver, Jr. and Alba Bates and Herrick hospitals, in form of petition for writ of mandate alleging that they wrongly failed to provide her …Read more

Both the prosperous and poor people of New Road, Ratlam were victims of extremely inadequate basic public sanitation facilities, fluid discharge of a local alcohol plant and overflow of storm water to the street. This resulted in various types of septic fluids flowing openly and constantly in the street, and consequently the street’s sanitation was …Read more

The Respondent, McRae, a Medicaid recipient seeking an abortion, brought a class action suit challenging the constitutional validity of the ‘Hyde Amendment’, which prohibited federal reimbursement under the Medicaid system for some abortions which were medically necessary. As established by an amendment to Title XIX of the Social Security Act in 1965, the Medicaid system …Read more

Title XIX of the Social Security Act establishes the Medicaid program under which participating States may provide federally funded medical assistance to needy persons. Title XIX requires that state Medicaid plans establish “reasonable standards . . . for determining . . . the extent of medical assistance under the plan which . . . are …Read more

Petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of regulations contained in the Social Security Act (‘the Act’) of Connecticut which limited Medicaid benefits for first trimester abortions to those that are “medically necessary”. For a benefit to be paid, the regulations required the submission of a written request by the pregnant woman, a physician’s certificate of medical …Read more

The Respondent brought a class action suit alleging constitutional rights violations after her request for a nontherapeutic abortion was refused by a public hospital in St. Louis.  Doe’s inability to obtain an abortion resulted from two factors, a personally motivated policy directive by the Mayor which prohibited the performance of abortions in the city hospitals …Read more