LL.B. (Three Years) Sem 1 Health and Food Law Oct 2025 Question Paper with Solutions

For full marks, cover: what public health means; the ancient period (Indus Valley sanitation, Ayurveda, Ashoka); the medieval period (Unani medicine); the colonial period (army health, plague and the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, the Bhore Committee 1946); independent India (the Constitution, planning, the Mudaliar Committee, Alma-Ata 1978, the National Health Policies of 1983, 2002 and 2017, the National Health Mission, Ayushman Bharat, COVID-19); how the courts made health a right (Parmanand Katara, Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity, State of Punjab v. Ram Lubhaya Bagga); a table of the main changes in practice; a conclusion.

Introduction

Public health is the health of the community as a whole, not only of one patient. It covers clean water, sanitation, control of epidemics, immunisation, nutrition and access to health care. Its main tool is prevention: stopping disease before it starts.

2. The medieval period

The Unani system of medicine came to India with Persian and Arab physicians and spread under the Delhi Sultans and the Mughals. Rulers set up hospitals (shifakhanas) in some cities. But care remained mostly a matter of charity, and epidemics such as plague and cholera were largely left to run their course.

3. The colonial period

1. Army and European health first. The British at first cared mainly for the health of their troops and officials. Sanitary measures were taken in cantonments and port cities.
2. Plague and the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. When plague broke out in Bombay in 1896, the Government passed the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897. It gave the Government wide powers to prevent the spread of dangerous epidemic diseases, including inspection and segregation. The Act still exists and was used again during COVID-19.

(3) Alma-Ata and "Health for All" (1978). India joined the international Declaration of Alma-Ata of 1978, which called on governments to build primary health care, with the goal of "Health for All by 2000 AD".

(4) National Health Policies.

1. 1983: India's first National Health Policy, focused on primary health care.
2. 2002: the second policy, which sought to improve access and reduce disease.
3. 2017: approved on 15 March 2017. It aims at "universal access to good quality health care services without anyone having to face financial hardship". It commits to free drugs, diagnostics and emergency care in public hospitals, and to raising public health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP.

(5) The National Health Mission. The National Rural Health Mission was launched in 2005, and later joined with an urban mission to form the National Health Mission. It funds States to strengthen public health services.

(6) Ayushman Bharat. Ayushman Bharat has four parts:

Pt. Parmanand Katara v. Union of India, AIR 1989 SC 2039. A scooterist hit by a car was taken to the nearest hospital. The doctors refused to treat him and sent him to another hospital twenty kilometres away, authorised for medico-legal cases. He died on the way. The Supreme Court held that Article 21 obliges the State to preserve life. Every doctor, in a government hospital or otherwise, must give immediate medical aid to save life, and procedural rules cannot stand in the way.

Paschim Banga Khet Mazdoor Samity v. State of West Bengal, AIR 1996 SC 2426. Hakim Seikh, an agricultural labourer, fell from a train and suffered serious head injuries. He was turned away by several government hospitals in Calcutta for want of beds or facilities. The Supreme Court held that providing adequate medical facilities is an essential duty of a welfare State. A government hospital's failure to give timely treatment violates the right to life under Article 21. The State was directed to pay compensation and to improve emergency services.

7. Problems that remain

1. Low public spending. The 2017 Policy's own target of 2.5 per cent of GDP shows that public spending has been well below what is needed.
2. Paying from one's own pocket. Many families still pay for treatment themselves, and a serious illness can push them into debt. PM-JAY was designed to reduce this.
3. Rural and urban gaps. Doctors, specialists and good hospitals are concentrated in cities.
4. Dependence on the private sector. Private providers give a large share of care, and regulating their quality and cost is difficult.
5. Resources and rights. Paschim Banga held that lack of money is no answer to the duty to provide emergency care. Ram Lubhaya Bagga accepted that the State may limit what it pays. The law is still settling where the line lies.