A Division Bench of the Madras High Court, comprising of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy, in the pursuance of the Suo Motu cognizance (taken by it) of the shortage of essentials required for fighting the second wave of COVID-19, has orally remarked and questioned as to- what the Centre had been doing in the last 14 months for curbing the spread of COVID- 19 virus.
The Chief Justice remarked that:
“Why are we acting only in April now though we had time for one year? Despite having a lockdown for most of the last one year, see the situation of absolute despair we are in.”
During the submissions made by the Additional Solicitor General (ASG) on the supply of Remdesivir, the Court asked him as to why all his submissions were focused on the situation getting better in June, despite the fact that measures were immediately required to address the situation subsisting in the present moment. The ASG also informed the Court that a team of experts was looking into- when can COVID cases be predicted to decrease. The CJ remarked the following- on it:
“I have not met any respectable doctor who had advised the guard to be dropped over the last few months... Even if doctors have not advised, who are the experts Centre has been consulting? We are in this state of absolute despair despite having lockdown for most of last year!"
The Chief Justice had also asked the ASG about lowering the rates of vaccine and about the crash of the COWIN app, through which registration for vaccination has to be done. The CJ elaborated that he also saw reports regarding the COWIN crash. The ASG informed the Court that he will address the bench on these aspects on the 30th of April. The CJ remarked that:
"there cannot be an ad-hocism about that and we do not mean any disrespect, (but) we had to go in a planned, informed manner after consulting expert.”
The Court has listed the matter tomorrow for the next hearing.
Case Details
Case: Suo Motu W.P.No.10486 of 2021
Quorum: Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy
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