TLTP
NEW DELHI
Granting one day on Monday the Indian Supreme Court asked the Centre to file affidavit about measures taken so far for proper treatment of Covid-19 patients in hospitals and dignified handling of bodies in all the states.
Appearing before a bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that Centre has filed an affidavit and the Gujarat government has also filed a report on fire in hospitals in the state. To which the bench adjourned hearing for a day saying it did not receive the Centre affidavit on its record.
During the course of proceedings, Mehta apprised the Central government has filed reply on December 11 and Gujarat government has filed its report on December 12. “We have received the report for fire audits by Gujarat but the report by centre is not on our record,” the bench said.
The apex court had sought last week a response from the Centre as well as states on issues ranging from adhering to COVID-19 guidelines on wearing of face masks and social distancing norms. It had also sought their responses on fire safety measures in hospitals after incidents of fire in COVID-19 dedicated hospitals.
Recently, it also took cognizance of the fire incident in a designated COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat’s Rajkot, in which several patients had died, raising the issue of lack of proper fire safety measures in hospitals across the country.
The Centre and state governments were asked to file detailed affidavits on steps taken by them with regard to it’s December 03 order, in which the bench while taking into note that guidelines with regard to wearing of masks and keeping social distancing are not being followed in almost all of the states, sought their suggestions in this regard.
It had also sought an inquiry report from the Gujrat government on the Rajkot incident and asked all other states to also file reports on fire incidents. The bench was hearing a suo motu case pertaining to the management of COVID-19 crisis and mishandling of bodies.
