Tiruchi Hospital Licence Cancelled Over Organ Transplant Racket Claim, Court Objects

The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has set aside the Tamil Nadu government's order cancelling the organ transplant licence of Tiruchi's Cethar Hospital. The hospital was one of the two accused of illegally facilitating kidney transplants by making poor textile workers in Erode and Namakkal districts impersonate close relatives of wealthy recipients.

Justice GR Swaminathan, who delivered the order on Monday, held that the Directorate of Medical and Rural Health Services had violated the due procedure prescribed under Section 16 of the Transplantation of Human Organs and Tissues Act, 1994, while cancelling the hospital's registration.

"The statutory procedure has been totally disregarded. No notice was issued, no hearing was given, and the materials said to have been gathered were not furnished to the petitioner. It is a case of rank illegality," the judge said, quashing the order dated August 18, 2025.

The court observed that although another hospital - Dhanalakshmi Srinivasan Medical College Hospital -- was also penalised in the same case, its writ petition had been filed separately before the High Court in Chennai.

During the hearing, Additional Advocate General Ajmal Khan submitted that the issue had "rocked the entire state" and that the case had acquired political overtones, with a Special Investigation Team already constituted by the Division Bench to probe the racket. He urged the court not to intervene.

Justice Swaminathan, however, said judges must remain "insulated to such probabilities". Quoting Justice Abhay S. Oka, he remarked: "Judges should be prepared to deliver judgments that may not be liked by the popular majority. They cannot worry about what people will think."

Allowing the writ petition, the judge ruled that while the order of cancellation is quashed, the health authorities, however, are free to take fresh action in accordance with the law, and after following the procedure laid down in the Act.