Telangana High Court issues contempt notice over not increasing Covid tests

Hyderabad: Expressing serious concern over not increasing Covid-19 tests even after its specific orders, the Telangana High Court on Thursday issued "Contempt Notice" against Dr. G. Srinivas Rao, Director, Public Health and Family Welfare, for wilful disobedience.

The Director had, as ordered by High Court, not taken up 50,000 tests from November 19 to November 25, 2020, apart from one lakh tests once every week. The court was embarrassed with Dr. Srinivas Rao report, which said, “The number of tests will be increased to 50,000 per day and one lakh once this week as and when the demand arises". This ultimately led to issuance of Contempt Notice against him.

The division bench, comprising Chief Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice Bollam Vijaysen Reddy, was dealing with a batch of 20 public interest litigations (PILs) related to various issues involving Coronavirus.

In view of the anticipated second wave of Covid-19 and congregations due to festivals and elections, the bench had on November19 directed the Health Department that the number of tests should be increased to 50,000 on a daily basis. And one day within a week, the tests must be increased to one lakh. The court also asked the department to submit report of implementing its orders.

But the tests conducted were between 40,000 to 47,000 throughout the week as per the report of Director, Public Health. Following this, the bench issued the Contempt Notice and granted the Director two weeks’ time to explain in detail why action should not be initiated against him under Contempt of Court’s Act for intentionally disobeying orders of the court.

The Chief Justice observed, “The more number of tests you carry out, more number of positive Coronavirus cases can be discovered in the state. However, less number of tests will result in less positive cases. The government is purposefully keeping the number of tests at the lowest ebb and this court, with an intention of precaution, reminds that more tests be conducted. But the state seems ill-prepared in tackling the Second Wave of Coronavirus”. The bench also made scathing remarks against Advocate General B. S. Prasad for filing this type of report.

The High Court further pointed to inaction of the government in initiating disciplinary proceedings against a bunch of erring private hospitals for fleecing Covid-19 patients.

“So far, in six months of time, action has taken against only two hospitals. Why was no action taken against other corporate hospitals when the number of complaints against Yashoda Hospitals was 33, Sunshine Hospital 14, Care Hospital 10, KIMS 10, Medicover 8 and Virinchi 14? Out of 122 pending grievances, three-fourths are against these hospitals. If you do not take action, we are not going to keep quiet,” the bench observed.
The PILs were adjourned to December 17, 2020, directing the state government to file its report by December 15, 2020.

The High Court also directed Telangana government to consider constitution of the Death Audit Committee, as done by Government of AP. The state government was further directed to ensure that a competent authority be constituted to accord permissions for holding political meetings, keeping in mind guidelines issued by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs.