Allahabad High Court: The division bench of Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar, JJ. while hearing suo moto proceedings to examine the Covid 19 situation across the state of Uttar Pradesh, gave the following directions:
Creation of Pandemic Public Grievance Committee: The Court directed that a three member Pandemic Public Grievance Committee shall be formed in every district within 48 hours of the passing of this order. The committee would consist of Chief Judicial Magistrate or a judicial officer of similar rank to be nominated by the District Judge, Professor of a Medical College to be nominated by the Principal of Medical College and if there is no medical college then a level-3/4 doctor of district hospital to be nominated by Chief Medical Superintendent of that district hospital and an administrative officer of the rank of Additional District Magistrate to be nominated by the District Magistrate.
Submission of Details: The Court sought the following information from the districts of Bahraich, Barabanki, Bijnor, Jaunpur and Shravasti both at urban and rural level. (I) Number of city population; (2) Number of level-1 and level-3 hospitals with details of beds; (3) Number of doctors, anesthetists in level-2 level-3 hospital; (4) medical and paramedical staffs (5) Number of BiPAP machines and High Flow Nasal Cannula Masks (6) Number of rural population tehsil-wise, (7) Number of community health centres,(8) availability of beds in community health centres (9) number of life saving gadgets like High Flow Nasal Cannula Masks, BiPAP Machines; (10) Number of oxygen concentrators with capacity details in community health centres, (11) Number of medical and para-medical staffs. The Court also asked the state to disclose how many tests were conducted since 31st March.
Compensation to teachers, investigators and Shiksha Mitras who passed away on Election Duty: The Court was not happy with the Rs 30 lakh promised as compensation to the teachers, investigators and Shiksha Mitras who had passed away while on election duty. As per the Court, it was too meagre an amount and proposed that the amount should be atleast to the tune of 1 crore and asked the State Election Commision to rethink the compensation. The Court observed that it was a deliberate act on the part of the State and State Election Commission to force them to perform duties in the absence of RTPCR support and it was not the case that somebody volunteered to render his/ her services during election but it was all made obligatory to those assigned with election duty to perform their duties during election even while they showed their reluctance.
Inoculating physically handicapped people and illiterate: The Court asked the State government how it plans to inoculate the physically challenged persons who cannot make it to the vaccination centres and also those who are illiterate (both labour and villagers) who cannot register themselves on the COWIN app. The Court directed the State Government to explain as to what is the difficulty with it if it opts to a guideline to inoculate physically challenged persons even in the absence of the Central Government guidelines.
Fact-finding committee on death of Justice VK Srivastava: The Court directed the State Government to constitute a Committee to conduct a fact finding enquiry into the treatment administered to late Justice V.K. Srivastava and submit the report to this Court within two weeks. The Court noted that the documents show that the late judge was advised life saving drugs Remdesivir, however, the papers do not show whether actually he was administered Remdesiver or not, on the first day and subsequent two days.
The Court also questioned the State regarding the diet given to covid patients in Government hospitals and also directed that no coercive action should be taken against Sun Hospital, Lucknow till they decide on show cause notice given to the Hospital and its reply. The next hearing is to take place on 17th May, 2021. [In-Re Inhuman Condition At Quarantine Centres And For Providing Better Treatment To Corona Positive, 2021 SCC OnLine All 289, decided on 11-05-2021].
