'What has Centre been doing for past 14 months?': Madras HC rips govt over COVID-19 management plan

Questioning the Centre's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Madras High Court on Thursday said that the situation 'continues to be dire' despite a year into another strict lockdown.

"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", Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee told Additional Solicitor General of India R Shankaranarayanan, as per Live Law.

This, a day after fresh COVID-19 cases in Tamil Nadu breached the 16,000 mark, the highest since the start of the pandemic. The state logged more than 15,000 cases each on Tuesday, Monday and Sunday. Tamil Nadu had crossed the 10,000 daily mark on 18 April.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy asked what the Centre has been doing over the past 14 months. The division bench made the remarks while responding to Shankaranarayanan's statement that the COVID surge was 'unexpected'.

"I have never met a respectable doctor who advised to drop guard", Chief Justice Banerjee said. "Who are the experts Central government has been consulting?" he further asked, as per the report. The observations came at the end of the hearing in the court's suo motu case on the COVID-19 management in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

"All that you are showing that things will be hunky-dory in June... Did they (Centre) consult experts? ... All that we see here is that 'June it will be better'.. we are all depending on chance, without doing anything," Chief Justice Banerjee stated, as per Bar and Bench.

The court also took note of issues such as the pricing of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for those between the ages of 18 and 44, the 'mad rush' for the vaccines and the CoWin website crashing. After Shankaranarayanan told the bench he would obtain instructions in the matter, the court said that all these aspects have to be dealt with in a 'planned manner' and not an ad-hoc basis, as per the report.

"There cannot be an ad hocism about that ... We do not mean any disrespect, (but) we had to go in a planned, informed manner after consulting experts, not ad hocism", the Chief Justice Banerjee said. The court then adjourned the hearing, saying it would take up the matter tomorrow.

This comes just days after the Madras High Court on Monday lashed out at the EC, calling it 'singularly responsible' for the second wave of COVID-19 in India and remarked that its officers should probably be booked for murder. The EC allowing political parties to take out rallies and meetings had led to the spread of the pandemic, the court remarked.

"Were you on another planet when the election rallies were held?", Chief Justice Banerjee had asked during the hearing. The court further warned it would not hesitate to stop the counting of votes on 2 May -- the day of the counting of votes and declaration of results of the Assembly elections in West Bengal, three other states Kerala, Assam and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Puducherry --- unless the EC put in place a blueprint of a plan to ensure COVID-19 protocols are followed.

The Election Commission of India on Tuesday banned all victory processions on 2 May, both during and after the counting of votes to check the spread of COVID. The EC further directed that only two persons can accompany winning candidates to receive certificates of election from Returning Officers.

 The fresh EC guidelines go beyond the ones issued by the poll panel for the Bihar Assembly elections last year which were being used as a template for elections being held during the coronavirus pandemic. The poll panel has to apprise the high court tomorrow on the steps it has taken to ensure a COVID-safe counting process.

High Courts hammer governments

Tuesday also witnessed high courts around the country bring down the hammer on several governments. The Delhi High Court came down heavily on the state government in a hearing, saying its confidence in the government is shaken and telling authorities to put their house in order.

“Set your house in order. Enough is enough. If you cannot manage it, tell us then we will ask the Central government to send their officers. We will ask them to take over. We cannot let people die like this,” the division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said while hearing a case on shortage of oxygen supply and COVID-19 essentials.

The court, slamming the government for rampant black marketing of oxygen cylinders and essential drugs in the National Capital, asked it to submit a report about the deaths which have taken place in Delhi on account of a shortage of oxygen.

The court further said it has not made any request for creating COVID-19 facilities for its judges, staff and their families in a five-star hotel and an SDM's order saying so was "very misleading".

In Gujarat, during a hearing on the suo moto proceedings on the surge in COVID-19 cases the high court said the affidavit submitted by the state paints a rosy picture and is not in touch with the ground reality. "We can't sit in the ivory towers. The state has to take steps to break the chain,"Live Law quoted Justice BD Karia as saying.

Chief Justice Vikram Nath of the Gujarat High Court said that there should be an assurance from the state government that no patient is unattended. Justice Karia added that it is alright even if patients are treated outside the hospitals. "With the limited resources we have, the problem is going to rise. We cant be mute spectators to the problem," Chief Justice Nath said.

The Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed all authorities to strictly enforce the ban imposed by the Election Commission on rallies and gatherings on 2 May. "The restriction imposed by the Election Commission of India as indicated above, shall be strictly enforced by all authorities concerned and it is so directed by this court," the bench ordered.

In Bombay, the high court, noting that the bodies of COVID-19 patients cannot be kept lying for hours waiting to be cremated, directed the Maharashtra government and the BMC to inform it about the condition of crematoriums across the state and in Mumbai.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said in several crematoriums there is awaiting period before bodies are cremated and relatives of the victims are forced to queue outside the crematoriums.

"The Maharashtra government and all other civic authorities will have to come up with some mechanism to address this issue. Bodies cannot be left lying like that for hours together. They are corpses," the high court said while hearing a clutch of public interest litigations seeking directions pertaining to shortage of Remdesivir injections, oxygen supply, availability of beds and other issues.

Justice Kulkarni cited an incident in Maharashtra's Beed district, where 22 bodies of COVID-19 victims were stuffed in an ambulance while being transported to the crematorium. "If there is a waiting period at a crematorium, the body should not be released from the hospital," the high court said.

The Kerala High Court on Tuesday issued a notice to the Central Government on two pleas challenging its "discriminatory COVID-19 vaccination policy". The court clarified that since the matter is under the consideration of the Supreme Court, no orders will be passed by it for the time being. It then posted the pleas to 4 May for further hearing.

With inputs from PTI

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