Five retired bureaucrats and an academician have approached the Supreme Court through lawyer Prashant Bhushan for setting up a Commission of Inquiry to probe the lapses on part of the government in handling the Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
On a day when Bhushan was slapped with a contempt notice by the apex court for his tweets accusing the judiciary of “destroying democracy”, the present petition was filed asking Court to hold the government accountable for its “gross mismanagement” of the pandemic situation.
The petitioners include former Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officers KP Fabian and Madhu Bhaduri, former Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers MG Devasahayam, Meena Gupta, Somasundar Burra and academician Amit Bhaduri.
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The petition alleges that the government failed on many counts which resulted in depriving citizens of their right to life and livelihood. The petition claims that the government failed to take timely and effective measures to contain the transmission of the disease despite getting notification of the disease from the World Health Organization (WHO) in January 2020. This began with a failure to screen all international passengers arriving in India, according to the petition.
Next, the petition alleges failure of the Centre to abide by its statutory obligations under the Disaster Management Act. Further, the petitioners accused the Centre of not consulting the National Task Force constituted on March 18, 2020, before imposing the lockdown. This committee had experts from the fields of epidemiology and public health. Timely and targeted provisions were not made to prevent job loss, income loss, deprivation of livelihood, starvation and exodus of migrant workers, the petition stated.
{{/usCountry}}Next, the petition alleges failure of the Centre to abide by its statutory obligations under the Disaster Management Act. Further, the petitioners accused the Centre of not consulting the National Task Force constituted on March 18, 2020, before imposing the lockdown. This committee had experts from the fields of epidemiology and public health. Timely and targeted provisions were not made to prevent job loss, income loss, deprivation of livelihood, starvation and exodus of migrant workers, the petition stated.
{{/usCountry}}The petition also touched upon the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) to health workers as an added ground for jeopardizing the safety of health workers. “The aforesaid lapses on part of the respondent (Centre) while dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a severe infraction of the fundamental rights of people,” stated the petition filed by Bhushan.