How govt would have function without assured Covid treatment to staff?: Delhi HC

New Delhi: Hearing a plea challenging the Delhi government’s decision to link four hotels with two hospital exclusively for the Delhi government officials and their families, the Delhi high court on Wednesday questioned as to how the government machinery would have functioned, if the employees were not assured treatment during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic

New Delhi: Hearing a plea challenging the Delhi government’s decision to link four hotels with two hospital exclusively for the Delhi government officials and their families, the Delhi high court on Wednesday questioned as to how the government machinery would have functioned, if the employees were not assured treatment during the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

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“The wheels of administration in the NCT of Delhi would have come to a grinding halt without this much assurance to the officials that they will receive treatment otherwise they would not have been able to discharge their duties without fear. They would not have been able to give attention and focus with which they were expected to discharge their duties,” the bench said.

“We are not living in ivory towers. We were seeing what was happening in the city during the second wave on a daily basis. Thousands of people were looking at the state for some relief…In our view such officers clearly constitute a different class on account of their duties which they were required to perform during the peak of the pandemic. They were required to come to duties by stepping out of the comfort of homes and they had no option to remain inside,” the court added.

The bench said during the lockdown, while the common citizenry were in their homes, it was the government officers who were out on the streets to manage the situation and if such officers/ officials were to fall sick and were not to receive treatment of COVID-19, not only they but the entire citizenry of Delhi would have suffered.

The court said the submission of the counsel that the resources of the state remained unutilised due to the exclusive reservation given to the officials has no factual basis.

The remarks come on the plea of Kaushal Kant Mishra, a doctor, who had challenged an April 27 notification of the city government reserving 240 rooms in four hotels linked with two hospitals for COVID-19 treatment of officials of various public authorities and their families.

According to the 70 rooms in Hotel Ginger at Vivek Vihar here, 50 rooms in Hotel Park Plaza in Shahdara, and 50 rooms in Hotel Leela Ambience at CBD Ground in Karkardooma, linked to Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital and all the rooms in Hotel Golden Tulip at Hari Nagar, which is linked to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDU), are reserved for the treatment of officers/officials of Delhi government, autonomous bodies, corporations, local bodies and their families.

Mishra’s counsel argued that creating such exclusive facilities for officers would violate fundamental rights including right to life and liberty of other citizens of Delhi who were seeking COVID-19 treatment but would be deprived of getting it as limited resources will be diverted for treating the officials.

However, the Wednesday the court said that judges do not live in ivory towers and are aware of the condition of the city during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

It disagreed with an argument that resources of the state remained unutilised due to the exclusive reservation of facilities for COVID-19 treatment of government officials and their families.

The court said that the submission of petitioner’s counsel does not take into account the ground reality of the second wave of the pandemic.

“There was such a shortage of facilities including oxygen, medicines, hospital beds, oxygenated beds, ICUs, doctors and paramedical staff that there was no question of any facilities remaining unutilised,” the court said, adding that when there was a massive dearth of medical infrastructure during the second wave of the pandemic, government officials were risking their lives on the streets to manage the situation.

It said the state is obliged to provide medical facilities to all the citizens including those grinding wheels of the administration and when the pandemic was at its height, there was a greater need of governance since the fire of the pandemic was raging at its peak.

The court listed the matter for further arguments on Thursday.