COVID- Uttarakhand HC Seeks State Govt's Response On Steps Taken By ICMR For Providing Bar Code On RTPCR Reports

The Uttarakhand High Court has recently sought response of the State Government on the steps taken by Indian Medical Research Council (ICMR) in issuing directions to all laboratories approved by it to mandatorily provide RTPCR reports with bar codes or QR codes.

The State Government apprised a bench comprising of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Alok Kumar Verma that a letter dated August 5 was written by the Health Department to Director General of ICMR to direct all approved laboratories to mandatorily provide RT-PCR reports with such codes to people getting tested.

Taking the same on record, the Court said "However, it is unclear whether any direction has been issued by the Director General, ICMR, or not?"

In view of this, the Court granted two weeks time to the State to inform it regarding the steps taken by ICMR on the aforesaid issue.

It was the case of the Advocate Aditya Prasad Singh, petitioner in person, that since a large number of RT-PCR reports were being forged, the better option for reading the reports would be to scan the barcode. 

The reason accorded was that the barcode is generated and relates to a specific Specimen Referral Form ID, which is generated when the specimen of the individual was taken by the testing lab.

A letter was sent by Singh to the High Court highlighting certain difficulties faced by the people of the State while battling the COVID-19 pandemic. It included the issue of Oxygen Concentrators not being classified as "essential commodity", private laboratories are charging exorbitant fees for carrying out CT scan and lastly, RT-PCR test results being forged in order to circumvent the SOP issued by the Centre and State of Uttarakhand.

The said letter was then turned into a Public Interest Litigation and response of State was sought by the Court.

The matter will now be heard on August 25.

Title: WPPIL No. 65 of 2021

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