New Delhi: Supreme Court directed all private hospitals in the country to provide free treatment including medicines, costly surgeries for victims of acid attacks with complete action.

To help acid attack survivors, Supreme Court had directed private hospitals across the country to provide free treatment including medicines, costly surgeries and also asked government authorities to take an action against them if any of private hospital management fails to comply with its order.

A Social justice bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and UU Lalit has directed all state government and Union Territories to take up the matter with all private hospitals across country, to provide free medicine, food and other facilities to such victims. It also asked Medical Council of India to take up this issue with all private hospitals.

In the year of 2014 total 309 acid attack cases were registered in the country, out of which 187 incidents are from Uttar Pradesh. Madhya Pradesh ranked as the second highest number for cases with 57 and no acid attack incidents were found in Union Territory except Delhi where 27 cases were registered in the year of 2014.

The Center directed court that a meeting of state health secretaries to frame a policy in order to control sale of acid and also to take forward step in free treatment for victims. The Court had enhanced last year Rs. 3 lakh as minimum compensation from the earlier Rs. 50,000 in such cases. It also directed states to control sale of acid and treating it as poison under the Poisons Act, 1919.

Law of Justice has also banned sale of acid to minors and it should be sold only to those who have issued an identity by government and those should write the purpose of acid purchase. And it also asked the centre and state to register such cases as non- bailable.