"Citizens Being Looted, Their Pain Is Our Pain": MP High Court Questions Govt On Amicus' Report Saying Ventilators Were Lying Uninstalled/ Unused

The Bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan orally remarked,

"Janta ko loota jaa raha hai, unka dard humara dard hai (Citizens are being looted, their pain is our pain)"

#MadhyaPradeshHighCourt is hearing a batch of petitions concerning the #Covid-19 situation in the State.

Hearing before the bench of Chief Justice Mohammad Rafiq and Justice Atul Sreedharan pic.twitter.com/mLGO8wOjSz

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 19, 2021

Further, Justice Atul Sreedharan orally remarked that the State was finding problems within solutions and asked as what the State Government proposed to do with regard to rationalization of the charges by the private hospitals and for fixation of the capping thereof.

Significantly, when the Advocate General for the state stated that "70 saal see jo nahin hua wo hum kar rahe hain (what did not happen in 70 years, we have done that in the State)," Justice Sreedharan said,

"Don't tell all this. You have been here for 20 years, don't tell us about what happened in 70 years. What did you do?"

AG: 70 saal see jo nahin hua wo hum kar rahe hain (what did not happen in 70 years, we have done that in the State).

Justice Shreedharan: Don't tell all this. You have been here for 20 years, don't tell us about what happened in 70 years. What did you do?

— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 19, 2021

Other directions issued by the State Government

Considering that if not used timely, the Remdesivir injections are likely to go waste, the Court deemed it appropriate to direct the State authorities to get the seized Remdesivir injections tested through the State Forensic Science Laboratory or any other appropriate agency, to find out whether or not, the drugs, which have been seized, are genuine Remdesivir injections.

Further, the Court directed,

"…to the extent the seized vials of the Remdesivir are found to be genuine, the Chief Medical & Health Officer of the concerned district would make an application before the appropriate Court for taking delivery of such seized drugs, which shall pass the required orders in that behalf, within a period of three days from the date of filing of the application, so that the medicine can be provided to needy patients before its expiry."

Apart from this, the Amicus Curiae Naman Nagrath stated 76 ventilators at Bundelkhand Medical College, Sagar; 24 ventilators at Government Hospital, Shahdol; 2 ventilators at Alirajpur; 2 ventilators at Katni are either lying uninstalled or unused.

He further submitted that most of these ventilators could not be used on account of the non-availability of expert technicians.

To this, Mr. P.K. Kaurav, Advocate General submitted efforts are being made to make all these ventilators functional in the entire State and he undertook to apprise the Court about the current situation of these and other ventilators lying at Alirajpur and Katni on the next date of hearing.

Importantly, the Court also directed the respondent-State thus:

"Place on record a report showing as to how many ventilators were obtained under the PM Cares Fund and how many are procured by the State Government on its own and how many of them are functional. The data shall be produced on record as to the availability of ventilators in all the Government/District Hospitals of the State."

With this, the matter has been posted for further hearing on May 24.

Click here to download the order

Read order