Missing Of 82 Years Old Covid Patient From TB Hospital: UP Govt. Withdraws Plea Against Allahabad HC Order As HC Clarifies Its Previous Order

The bench of Chief Justice NV Ramana, Justice Surya Kant and Justice Hima Kohli while allowing the State to withdraw the SLP in its order noted,

"In view of the clarification made by the High Court regarding scope of pending proceedings, the State of U.P. is now not pressing this Special Leave Petition and seeks permission to withdraw the same. In view of the above, the Special Leave Petition is dismissed as withdrawn."

Appearing for the State of UP, ASG Aishwarya Bhati submitted that pursuant to filing the SLP, subsequent development had taken place and the High Court had passed orders dated September 13, September 14, September 15 in the Habeas Corpus writ.

She also drew Court's attention to the High Court's order dated September 13, 2021 in which the High Court had observed that,

"In the present habeas corpus writ petition our primary concern is only with respect to the production of the corpus, namely, Ram Lal Yadav, who has undisputedly been admitted to T.B. Sapru Hospital, Prayagraj and no information is available with regard to him since 08.05.2021. So far as certain observations made in the body of the order dated 27.08.2021 regarding available/required medical equipments, CCTV cameras etc. as per standard and norms of the State Government in various hospitals including the hospital in question and uniform SOP for Government Hospitals is concerned, that is not our primacy concern in this writ petition. Therefore, we leave it to the State Government either to disclose these figures before this Court or not as it may think appropriate in its wisdom."

Allahabad High Court passed several directions against the Government in a Habeas Corpus plea seeking the release of an 82-year-old man from the custody of TB Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj, where he was admitted for treatment of Covid-19 but purportedly went missing.

Filed through Advocate on Record Vishnu Shankar Jain, the SLP argued that the High Court has passed a number of directions beyond the scope of Habeas Corpus petition and has passed strictures against the Senior Superintendent of TB Sapru Hospital Prayagraj and against the entire Hospital and District Police Authorities without any rhyme or reason.

Averring that the patient admitted in the hospital is not a "detenue" and that writ of habeas corpus could not lie, the petitioners had averred that they took every step to search Respondent's father who was missing from Hospital since the morning of May 8, 2021.

The SLP had also contended that an enquiry was also instituted to find out the circumstances under which the person was missing and that even the police took every step to search the missing person.

Arguing that the High Court had enlarged its jurisdiction and scope of writ, the SLP also stated that the High Court completely overlooked the hospital's ground realities during the corona period when a large number of patients were being admitted. To further substantiate their contention, petitioners in the SLP have argued that in a pandemic situation the disaster management being controlled by medical staff and police could not be penalized if any patient went missing in such a situation.

Reliance had been placed on the Top Court's judgement in State of Uttar Pradesh v Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma in which the Court had observed that,

"High Court should not ordinarily direct the officers of the State to be personally present in the Court,"

to contend that the High Court on August 19, 2021 had directed personal presence of the Chief Medical Officer, Chief Medical Superintendent, District Magistrate and Superintendent of Police.

"Officers waste their valuable time of duty if they have to attend the court and that affects the administrative work and in the present pandemic situation such presence causes serious hardships to the public at large," the SLP stated.

The petitioner in their SLP had also argued that the issues required to be decided by the High Court as involved in the writ have taken diversion in the shape of public interest litigation which was not at all within the scope of the Habeas Corpus petition.

"The so called corpus neither has been detained illegally, nor he is in illegal detention, therefore orders passed in the Habeas Corpus Petition are totally taking diversion towards a public interest litigation," petition further states.

In light of the above, the State in the SLP had also sought for expunging the adverse remarked passed by the High Court and setting aside the orders which are beyond the scope of Habeas Corpus petition.

Case Before Allahabad High Court

While hearing a Habeas Corpus plea seeking the release of an 82-year-old man from the custody of TB Sapru Hospital in Prayagraj, where he was admitted for treatment of Covid-19 but purportedly went missing, the Bench of Justice Surya Prakash Kesarwani and Justice Piyush Agrawal on August 27, 2021, the High Court had observed that,

"We are constrained to observe that either the State Government has not yet prepared uniform SOPs for District Hospitals in Uttar Pradesh including T.B. Sapru Hospital, Prayagraj or deliberately the same has not been brought on record. It is unbelievable that the State Government, which is running a large number of Hospitals in the State of Uttar Pradesh, would not have any uniform SOPs or Plan for appropriate administration, management and security of the Hospitals."

The Court, prima facie, observed that the entire hospital as well as the police authorities were negligent and committed dereliction in their duties in the matter of tracing the corpus Ram Lal Yadav and noted that Doctors, as well as Staff of the Hospital, were well aware of the incident of missing of the corpus since the morning of May 8, 2021.

Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, the Court directed that appropriate corrective measures be immediately taken to ensure improvement in working of the Hospitals, security and safety measure etc.

The Court also directed the Director-General, Medical Health to file their personal affidavits clearly stating therein the standards and norms of infrastructure, medical equipment as well as other equipment, security and safety measures etc. prescribed by the State Government for District Hospitals, Community Health Centres and Primary Health Centres, Moti Lal Nehru Medical College and S.R.N. Hospital Prayagraj, as well as existing facilities available.

Case Title: State of UP v. Rahul Yadav

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