Madhya Pradesh High Court: The Divison Bench of Mohammad Rafiq, CJ. and Atul Sreedharan, J., heard and decided on a series of interlocutory applications which were filed with different prayers all in relation with COVID 19.
The prayers in these petitions included:
- for an appropriate direction to the respondent/State to ensure availability of required medicines for treatment of Black Fungus (Mucormycosis) and to control cost of such treatment.
- for direction to the State Government to install CT-Scan and MRI machine in Medical College/District Hospital, Ratlam. These applications were disposed of with liberty to the applicants to give suggestions at the time of hearing of the aforesaid application.
- praying that the applicant was given time-slot for vaccination, but no such vaccine was provided to her. In this regard, she made complaint and the Court in this regard directed that upon the applicant/intervener approaching the Chief Medical and Health Officer, Jabalpur, he shall ensure that time slot is provided to her for the purpose of vaccination and she is vaccinated.
- prayer that the State Government be directed to also provide the cost of medicines for treatment under the Ayushman Bharat Nirmayan Yojna for treatment of the persons covered in that scheme.
- for a direction to the State Government to take appropriate action against the erring persons for selling fake Remdesivir and other spurious drugs for committing offences of murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code, apart from those under National Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940, he further prayed the affected persons or in case of death, the family members of the deceased, be granted adequate compensation as per provision of Section 27 of the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940.
The Court in this regard opined that no such specific direction can be issued by this Court while dealing the matter under the scope of PIL. It is always for the Investigating Officer to find out on the basis of evidence collected by him during the course of investigation as to what offence is made out and accordingly submit the chargesheet. If and when the chargesheet is submitted, the Court concerned will have the occasion to examine whether or not such offences are prima facie made out for proceeding further in the trial or any other offence is made out on the basis of evidence collected by the Investigator.
- prayer to issue direction to the State Government to lodge an FIR in the matter of death of five persons due to shortage of oxygen in the Galaxy Super Speciality Hospital, Jabalpur in accordance with the findings recorded in the Magisterial Enquiry conducted in the matter. Advocate General submitted that the FIR had already been lodged and the investigation was going on, in this view the Court did not deem fit to pass any order.
- prayer for quashing of the order dated 20-5-2021 passed by the Collector, Indore by which a complete lockdown has been imposed in the Indore city and supply of all the essential items had been stalled. The Court opined that Collector, Indore should review his order and ensure just and equitable method of having all grocery shops, daily need shops, fruits and vegetable vendors, open during specified hours of five days a week so that neither the residents of Indore city nor the small vendors face any hardship.
- the State Government should be required to demonstrate its preparedness to deal with the apprehended third wave of Covid-19 and submit the time frame and action plan to vaccinate the entire population of the State.
- A prayer invited attention of the Court that the State Government has not taken any effective measures regarding fixation of the maximum rates for treatment of the Covid patients in various Private Hospitals/Nursing Homes by indicating capping of the such charges, in compliance of the order passed by this Court on 19-4-2021.
Amicus Curiae submitted that pursuant to the order passed by this Court on 19-5-2021, he had interaction with the representatives of the Indian Medical Association and M.P. Nursing Homes Association. According to him, the discussions resulted into fruitful suggestions. They are ready to make addition of 40% as directed by the State Government in its order dated 4-9-2020, invoking its power under the National Disaster Management Act and Epidemic Diseases Act, on the charges reflected in the bills of various kind of the treatments and facilities provided by them (private hospitals/nursing homes) in the month of January and February 2020 immediately before the start of the pandemic. The Court opined that , the package method of charging has to be discouraged and the suggestion which has emerged in the deliberations made by the learned Amicus Curiae with the representatives of the Indian Medical Association and M.P. Nursing Homes Association that charge for the various kind of treatments and facilities being provided by the nursing homes and private hospitals in the months of January and February, 2020 may form basis of adding 40% thereto, to fix outer limit capping of charges taken for treatment of Covid 19 patient which appears to be reasonable criteria and would be beneficial to the public at large and save them of undue exploitation.
- Prayer that direction be issued to the State Government to declare Black Fungus (Mucormycosis) as “notified infectious disease” and that State Government be directed to regulate supply and cost of Amphotericin-B injections and any other medicines that would be required to treatment of Mucormycosis, so that patients and their families are not exploited.
The Court in this regard impressed upon the State Government to effective take steps so as to save the life of more than 1000 patients who are infected and many more who might be infected during the course of time. In regard to vaccination the Court opined that since as per Action Taken Report filed today by the State Government, tender has not been issued so far, the State Government may consider suitably increasing the number of doses for procurement through the global tender based on the actual requirement, particularly when each person is required to be given two doses for complete vaccination.
From the submissions made the Court concluded that the State Government has not received even half of the promised quantity of the vaccination doses for the month of May 2021, either from the Central Government for the age group of 45 and above or even from two major manufacturers within the country in response to orders placed with them. The global tender issued by the different State Governments have also failed to yield in positive result.
The Court further opined that the Central Government ought to reconsider efficacy of its vaccination policy. The Central Government should consider taking upon itself the responsibility of providing required number of vaccination doses to the State by setting up more and more units in all the States with required licence from the local manufacturers, to ramp up the production of the vaccination on war footing. Additionally, the Central Government should by itself consider procuring the vaccination doses in sufficient quantity from the manufacturers from outside the country to provide the same to the States, rather than leaving it upon the States to do so. The Central Government should also consider procuring the medicine Amphotericin-B or any other equivalent medicine by setting up more number of manufacturing unit within the country or from outside the country wherever, they may be available for immediately treatment for saving hundreds of precious lives of the citizens.
A detailed affidavit/Action Taken Report regarding the preparedness of the State Government for apprehended third wave of Covid-19 to come up on 31-05-2021.
[In Reference (Suo Motu) v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine MP 963, decided on 24-05-2021]
Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has put this report together
Appearance:
For petitioner: Mr. Siddharth Gupta
Amicus curiae: Mr Naman Nagrath, Senior Advocate with Mr Jubin Prasad, Advocate a
For Respondents: Mr Purushaindra Kaurav, Advocate General, Mr Pushpendra Yadav, Additional Advocate General and Mr Swapnil Ganguly, Deputy Advocate General, Mr Jitendra Kumar Jain, Assistant Solicitor General and Mr Vikram Singh, Advocate for the Union of India, Mr Shivendra Pandey, Advocate, Mr Shreyas Pandit, Advocate, Mr A.M. Mathur, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr Abhinav P. Dhanodkar, Advocate.