Lucknow, Feb. 16 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court has stated in an order that it was 'shocked' to note that King George's Medical University( KGMU), the premier medical institute of Uttar Pradesh, had refused admission to a critical patient at midnight, citing non-availability of beds. The victim, who was allegedly poisoned, died the next day for want of treatment. The court directed the chief secretary to look into this matter as well and file a report by the next date of listing (March 19). The King George's Medical University has 4,000 beds, while the footfall is around 10,000 patients per day, including OPD and IPD, according to Prof Hemraj Singh, chief medical superintendent, KGMU's Trauma Centre. The five-storey trauma centre building has 490 beds, including 42 beds on the ground floor casualty ward. In case of high footfall at the trauma centre, patients are treated by the doctors on 140 stretchers. The trauma centre witnesses a footfall of 300 patients per day. The KGMU has 58 departments while the ratio of beds to patients is 2:5 "Once the premier Medical Institute of the State Capital is itself returning back a patient indicating the non availability of bed, prima facie, it speaks volumes about the state of the medical health facility in the State Capital. We are shocked!" a division bench of justice Abdul Moin and justice Babita Rani observed in an order passed on February 11, while hearing a petition filed by one Urmila. The petition was filed in connection with an FIR lodged at the Kherighat police station of Bahraich district in an alleged dowry death case. The court further directed that a copy of its order be placed before the chief secretary for looking into the matter for the purpose of providing adequate facilities in the medical colleges and to submit a report by the next date of listing. "The report would be brought on record with the personal affidavit of the principal secretary (Home) by the next date of listing, failing which, the principal secretary (Home) may be directed to appear personally," the court further stated in the order. The court perused a report of KGMU, which indicated that initially, on August 29, 2025, at about 2:33am, when the patient/victim was taken to the hospital in critical condition, the hospital opined "suspected rat kill poisoning at 10pm." However, she could not be admitted to the hospital, indicating "regret no bed available, refer to Balrampur/RML hospital", and later, she died. The court observed that as KGMU is the premier medical institute of the state functioning from the state capital, it is shocking that a patient taken there at midnight for emergency treatment was returned on the ground of non-availability of beds. The court also took exception to the significant delay in the forensic investigation in the matter. The court noted that the victim's viscera was sent for a Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report on September 26, 2025, however, even after four months, the report is not filed. The court observed that the authorities are under an obligation to ensure that FSL submits its report promptly, and that there is no basis for FSL to delay submission for months. "In case there is a shortage of staff or there are fewer laboratories, it is for the State authorities to wake up from slumber and take appropriate action inasmuch as it is not expected that every citizen would approach the court even to get a report from the Forensic Science Laboratory," the court observed....