Orissa High Court: A Division Bench of S. Panda, ACJ and S.K. Sahoo J., directed the State Government to inform the Court regarding steps taken for effective prevention of the COVID-19.
The instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India in the nature of PIL was filed in which prayer has been made for a direction to the OPs to ban/cancel all the ships, airplanes and cargoes passing through affected areas of coronavirus (COVID-19) those are roaming nearby sea coasts in Odisha till health emergency in India is declared safe and to take preventive measures for reducing the infection of coronavirus and for proper medication, provide sanitation to the people and also to make awareness among the people about coronavirus, constitute Rapid Action Team to look and face the disease which is creating havoc and also to impose a ban on the celebration of any event by mass gathering. The petitioner produced a notification dated 13.03.2020 issued by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in which in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of Section 2A, of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, the Central Government in order to regulate the production, quality, distribution, logistics of masks and hand sanitizers (for COVID-19 management) has included the ‘masks’ and ‘hand sanitizers’ in the schedule of essential commodities. It was mentioned therein that the notification shall remain in force up to 30.06.2020.
The Court stated that masks and hand sanitizers are sold at an exorbitant price and there is scarcity of such commodities in the market and asked the State Government to elaborate what steps have been taken to regulate the sale of such commodities in different parts of the State at a reasonable price and whether any notification in that respect has been issued. The Court also directed the State to inform the court regarding the tests being conducted for the detection of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in the persons who are coming to the State of Odisha in the vessels, airplanes passing through the counties where there is a wide outbreak of such disease and also the cargoes carried in such vessels and airplanes and what measures have been taken by the State Government to prevent spreading of the disease.
The matter is next listed for 23-03-2020.[Bijaya Kumar Ragada v. State of Odisha, 2020 SCC OnLine Ori 69, decided on 16-03-2020]