The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday while deferring the hearing of contempt application directed the state authorities to do needful to curb the spread of covid-19 in state and also sought report from State Government by the next date as to why no Health Department is functioning in the Nagar Nigam.
The division bench comprising of Justice Siddhartha Verma and Ajeet Kumar has observed that, “We are conscious of the fact that the State machinery and the District machinery are doing their job day and night making all efforts to curb the spread of the Covid-19 infection, however we are of the view that a lot still is required to be done and any shortcoming or laxity at this stage or in the near future might result in a disaster. 7. In view of the above, we do hope and trust that the Police and the District Administration all over the State would leave no stone unturned to see that the Government guidelines /directives issued 4 from time to time, especially those issued on 6.8.2020 and 17.8.2020, are complied with in letter and spirit and, therefore, as of now while keeping the contempt application pending, we are deferring the contempt matter today”
A contempt application was filed before the Allahabad High Court to highlight the failure of the state authorities to fulfil the guidelines issued by the state government to maintain the social distancing and other norms to curb the spread of covid-19 and the poor condition of the quarantine centers in the state and other serious issues related to covid-19.
The Court has gone through the submission of learned Additional Advocate General Sri Manish Goyal regarding the condition of the hospitals and numbers of the doctors and nurses for the treatment of the covid-19 patients and directed the Hospital Authorities to disclose the total number of deaths date wise in the wards treating Covid-19 patients and to disclose whether they died due to Covid-19 infection or any other disease. Further the court has directed that,
“Considering the widespread impact of Covid-19 infection and the fact that the SRN hospital is a level-3 hospital, there should be not less than 3 Nurses and a Doctor on every 15 patients. This should be for the isolation wards. The Doctor patient ratio for the ICU wards should be even better. We expect that the Hospital Administration and the Government will ensure that more medical force is deployed to meet the requirement.”
The Court had directed the Pryagraj Nagar Nigam to remove encroachments vis-a-vis vegetable markets and kiosks selling pan and tea where people gathered. It was also directed that the Nagar Nigam may remove such encroachment which it thought was encroaching on its land. But on perusal of the all reports it has found that removal of encroachments by the Nagar Nigam was extremely half-hearted and only on paper.
To deal with this issue the court has appointed two Advocate Commissioners, namely, Sri Chandan Sharma and Sri Ram Kaushik, Advocates of this Court who would inspect such places which the Nagar Nigam has submitted have been made encroachment free and they would submit joint report by the next date on issues prescribed by the court.
The court has also asked the State Government to submit a report about the functioning of Health Department in the Nagar Nigam.
The court has listed present matter on 25 August, 2020.
Case Details
Case: PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 574 of 2020
Petitioner: In-Re Inhuman Condition At Quarantine Centres And For Providing Better Treatment To Corona Positive
Respondent: State of U.P.
Counsel for Petitioner: Gaurav Kumar Gaur,Rishu Mishra,S.P.S. Chauhan
Counsel for Respondent: C.S.C.,Purnendu Kumar Singh
Bench: Hon'ble Siddhartha Varma,J. and Hon'ble Ajit Kumar,J.
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