Act against government officials shirking Covid duties: HC

Coming down heavily on negligent and errant officials who have been shirking their Covid duties, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has sought criminal

Coming down heavily on negligent and errant officials who have been shirking their Covid duties, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has sought criminal proceedings against such officials.

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The court, while hearing a suo motu public interest litigation (PIL), was informed that though the court in an earlier hearing on July 3 had issued strict orders to public servants to do their duty diligently and report to work, the situation remained unchanged.

A division bench of justice TV Nalawade and justice SD Kulkarni, while hearing the report of advocate Rajendra Deshmukh, senior counsel appointed as amicus curiae, was informed that despite the court’s order, there was still no discipline among public servants and many in charge of Covid-19 control programme were not reporting on duty.

Public prosecutor DR Kale submitted a compilation of details on actions taken against errant officials, as sought by the court. The suo motu PIL had been initiated by the court after concerns were raised over the spike in Covid-19 cases and lack of coordination between various authorities in Aurangabad. Kale further submitted that Aurangabad city would go under a strict nine-day lockdown from July 10 and all necessary steps would be taken to contain the spread of the virus.

After perusing records submitted by the district superintendents of the police, the court noted that show-cause notices were issued to private hospitals, but their replies were not produced.

The court said, “The authorities are expected to take further criminal action against those hospitals not complying with the orders, as only after that the beds will be made available for patients.”

With regards to the errant officials, the court observed, “If the public servants, to save their own lives, are shirking responsibility, then it can be presumed that there is no use of them in the system. After taking criminal action against them, they can be removed, and this way the system can be cleaned.” The court then posted the hearing on July 21.