"Pandemic Situation Likely To Worsen, States & Centre Must Gear Up To Combat It": Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Monday observed that the pandemic situation is likely to worsen across the country in the coming months and States as well as the Centre must be well-equipped to deal with the Covid19 crisis.

In this light, a bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy & MR Shah directed the States of Delhi, Maharashtra, Gujarat & Assam to file status reports with respect to the Covid19 cases in respective states, the ground situation for handling crisis as well as steps taken.

"All states have to be prepared to combat the situation of Covid19 which is likely to worsen and immediate steps required by all states. Status report be filed within two days. List on Friday," Supreme Court directed.

At the beginning of the hearing, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta expressed grief that the situation has come to a point where the Courts are having to deal with this subject matter.

"Yes, but it has to be taken account of," said Justice Bhushan.

The SG told Court that the centre had taken steps in the State of Delhi to manage the situation and that Delhi needed to do more as the cases were rising.

"I understand this is not Us Vs. Them, its Us together but I want to tell Court that on 15th November, the Union Minister has taken some decisions and directions have been issued but Delhi needs to do more," said the Law Officer.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Jain for GNCTD told Court that everything in Delhi was completely in place. "Dedicated slots for cremation of 380 Covid patients and they are attached to hospitals area wise, Great deal of upsurge for ICU hospitals, 80 percent ICU beds reserved for covid patients in private hospitals," said Jain.

The directions were given in the suo moto case titled, "In Re: Proper Treatment of COVID-19 Patients and Dignified Handling of Dead Bodies in the Hospitals, etc".

Justice Shah also slammed State of Gujarat with regard to the permissions granted for performance of marriage ceremonies and processions in the state. 

The Counsel assured the court that an affidavit will come on record in this regard.

The suo motu case will now be taken up for further hearing on Friday and all affidavits have been directed to come on record by day after tomorrow.

On July 2, court had directed the Centre to file a fresh detailed Affidavit within two weeks in order to show the steps that have been taken in pursuance of the directions issued by the Supreme Court on 19th June, 2020.

The Court had then observed that the affidavit filed by the Centre did not give details of compliance with respect to the slew of directions passed by it on June 19.

"An affidavit has been filed on behalf of the Union of India, which does not give the details of compliance of the directions except that orders have been issued to comply the directions. Mere direction to comply the directions is not enough. The steps taken towards compliance of the directions have to be brought on the record", the SC said in the order.

On July 27, the bench had observed that most States had failed to file a response to the directions which had been given by the Court vide their judgement dated 19th June. They further wanted to know if the directions had been complied by the Centre as well as the States, as details of compliance had not been provided by the Centre.

In response to this, Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta submitted to the Court that some time was required to file a proper Reply.

"The State Governments / UTs have not filed affidavits giving details of compliance of various directions issued by this Court on 19th June, 2020. We are of the view that the Chief Secretaries of the States have to take steps to ensure that directions issued by this Court in order dated 19th June, 2020 are complied with. An appropriate compliance report be filed. We grant two weeks' time to the States / UTs to file an appropriate compliance affidavit. The Union of India may also file detailed affidavit within two weeks giving the details of the various compliance of the directions which were issued by this Court", the bench ordered.