Last chance, HC tells govt
Court summons top officials over lack of steps taken to check Covid-19
Outraged by the government’s non-compliance of its directions to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, the Telangana High Court on Monday summoned the Chief Secretary and a slew of senior officials on July 28.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy said they will make sure that “heads start rolling.” The bench was dealing with a batch of PILs complaining against the government handling of the Covid-19 situation.
The other officials summoned are the principal secretaries of the municipal administration and health departments, the GHMC commissioner, Dr G. Srinivas Rao, Director, Public Health, and Dr K. Ramesh Reddy, Director, Medical Education.
The court had issued directions more than three times, but the government never complied. On July 1, the court had warned that it would summon senior officials if its orders were not implemented. This was not done, and the court summoned the officials.
Chief Justice Chauhan observed, “The State and its machinery are not taking proper action even though the people are dying in large numbers, which amounts to criminal negligence. The High Court does not want to be part of it. On several occasions, this court has directed the government and issued guidelines to tackle the pandemic. All were violated and not complied with. The court now won’t be a silent spectator.”
The court asked Advocate General B.S. Prasad why the government was not taking action against Dr Srinivas Rao and Dr Ramesh Reddy. “Why can’t the government get rid of these two officials as they don’t care to implement court orders? If not a contempt case against them, why can’t a FIR under Section 156 CrPC be registered, apart from instituting a departmental enquiry? They cannot seem to carry out simple directions of
the court.”
The Chief Justice told the Advocate General that though the court orders were never complied with, the health bulletin issued by the government says that the High Court has applauded or appreciated the work and infrastructure distributed to deal the Covid-19. “We have never done that.”
This was in reference to Dr Srinivas Rao saying in
the health department bulletin that the High Court had praised his work, in response to a Press Information Bureau bulletin that said the official had been pulled up by the High Court.
The Chief Justice noted that Delhi had tested
25,145 persons per million, Andhra Pradesh
26,121, Tamil Nadu 14,669, Karnataka 9,050, Kerala
6,287 but it was only 5,962
per million in Telangana state. Recalling the government undertaking that it would conduct 50,000 tests, the court observed that it did not do so.
The court asked Assam and Karnataka had imposed a lockdown, why could the TS government not do so due to the increase in cases in the GHMC area and 13 districts.