‘State has failed’: Sombre note in high court hearing
NEW DELHI: “The State has failed us,” the Delhi high court observed on Friday, after it was informed in the middle of a hearing that a petitioner, who sought the court’s help three days ago to secure an intensive care unit (ICU) bed, had succumbed to Covid-19.
“The State has failed in its fundamental obligation to protect the basic fundamental right -- i.e, the right to life as contained under Article 21,” a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli told the teary relatives of the petitioner.
The petitioner, Atul Kumar Sharma, was admitted in Maharaja Agrasen Hospital’s casualty wing, and approached high court WHEN to direct the state authorities to allocate him an ICU bed. The hospital told the court that it was taking care of the patient but had no ICU beds free.
The high court had said it couldn’t consider an individual case but appealed to all hospitals and authorities to make arrangements. On Friday, when the bench was again appealing to counsels to consider the petitioner’s case, advocate Amit Sharma told the court that his brother-in-law Atul had expired. He burst into tears and said, “I have failed…”
The bench stopped him. “No Mr Sharma, you have not failed. The State has failed.” Silence descended among the judges, counsels and over 150 participants who had joined the video conferencing hearing.
The emotional exchange capped an eventful day in court where senior lawyers broke down and pleaded for help, the state government counsel expressed helplessness, and judges said it was getting tough for them.
“It is the complete failure of the State that everything including hospital beds and medical oxygen is in short supply. It is a war and not a battle,” the court remarked earlier in the day after Bar Council of Delhi (BCD) chairman Ramesh Gupta, broke down while mourning his colleagues who died of Covid-19.
Gupta, who was appearing in a petition seeking medical facilities for lawyers, submitted that a private hospital agreed to treat the lawyers but didn’t have ICU beds. “We want my lords to come to our rescue. We do not want to criticise anyone or any government. We have Rs 4-5 crore in our funds and will arrange more from lawyers. We only want my lords to help us. Sir kuch karo aap (Sir please do something).”
Delhi government’s standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi also became emotional while informing the court about a colleague’s demise.”Daily we are losing our dear ones,” he said.
The court empathised. “We understand your pain. We are going through the same. This surge of Covid has such a huge number...nobody could have imagined that this will attack us in this way... Finances are not the issue here. The problem is infrastructure….The problem is we don’t have doctors, nurses, attendants, oxygen and medicines. It is a complete failure of the state,” the bench said.
“It’s getting tougher for us,” the bench said. It criticised the “hotchpotch situation” in Delhi and compared it to the way Mumbai was handling its infection load. “In Bombay what the MC has done is, you’re asked to register if you have Covid, and then they go door-to-door with bed and facilities. But we cannot do that in Delhi. It’s too late to devise a system now. Its complete hotchpotch,” the bench remarked.
The matter will be now heard on Saturday.