Plea in Supreme Court Seeks Direction to Centre and State Governments to Pay Compensation of 4 Lakhs for Kin of COVID-19 Victims

(Judicial Quest News Network)

A plea has been filed in Supreme Court seeking direction to the Central as well as State Governments to provide compensation to the families of those who have died due to COVID-19.

The pleas states that are provisioned in the Disaster Management Act 2005.

The pleas also pray for the submission of a comprehensive “National Plan “before the Supreme Court which not only deals with the prevailing second wave,

The pleas seek urgent directions to be issued to the Central and State to provide financial assistance for the treatment of all such patients who contracted COVID-19.

This is notwithstanding that the Centre had itself signalled a return to normal with public rallies, election campaigns and huge religious gatherings such as the Kumbha Mela. If people did relax the Covid-19 norms, they were only following what the leaders on the daises during rallies. At the same time, India’s political parties have been campaigning for a series of state elections in West Bengal, Assam, Kerala and Tamil Nadu,

The plea is drafted by Advocate Nachiketa Vajpaye and filed by Advocate Sriram Parakat on behalf of the social activist Deepak Raj Singh,the plea submits that it addresses the gross negligence on part of the Respondents, leading to inhumane deaths of thousands of COVID-19 positive patients due to lack of oxygen, medicines beds and other healthcare facilities  and arbitrary and unreasonable grant of permissions for conducting Kumbh Mela, election rallies in various parts of India and other mass public gatherings despite reasonably for seeing the fatal consequences of the same.

Advocate Divyangana Malik is one of the team member of the Advocate filed this petition.

It is further submitted that The Respondents herein have violated the spirit of Article 47 of the Constitution of India while showcasing sheer misgovernance and have failed to discharge their various statutory duties, particularly under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

The petitioner has also submitted that that it is not adversarial in nature and is in essence a “Social Action Litigation”.

during this global pandemic resulting in an unprecedented international medical emergency.

It is also submitted that during at the very outset, it is hereby asserted that the present Petition is not adversarial in nature and is in essence a “Social Action Litigation”. During these unprecedented times, this Hon‟ble Court has acted as a guardian of the virtues of Human rights and has taken up numerous public-interest issues by way of Suo Moto Writ Petitions, in order to mitigate and obviate the atrocities being faced by the public at large and the present issue in hand falls under the same domain, where thousands of citizens are rendered helpless and financially deprived due to loss of the lives of the earning family members due COVID-19, which is a notified “disaster” as defined u/s 2(d) the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

However, the Respondents failed not only to discharge their statutory duties u/S 35-40 of the DM Act, 2005, but also failed to exercise their powers conferred u/S. 2 and 2A of the ED Act, 1897. The Respondents have violated the spirit of Article 47 of the Constitution of India, which provides that a State must regard public health as one of its primary duties, in addition to raising the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people.

Pertinently, since a peak of more than 93,000 cases per day on average in mid-September, infections had steadily declined. By mid-February, India was counting an average of 11,000 cases a day. The seven-day rolling average of daily deaths from the disease had slid to below 100. There were reports from all parts of the world  regarding mutations of COVID-19. The daily number of cases gradually started increasing, and many countries in the world had already seen a second wave of COVID-19. Keeping in view the same, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare had flagged the issue of inadequate supply of oxygen and ‘grossly inadequate’ government hospital beds in November 2020 and asked the central government to take immediate action in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. The 123rd report of the Committee on “the outbreak of pandemic Covid-19 and its management”, which was presented to the Chairman of Rajya Sabha on November 21, 2020 and forwarded to the Speaker, Lok Sabha four days later, asked the Central Government to encourage adequate production of oxygen for ensuring its supply as per demand in hospitals.

Despite having sufficient time for preparedness, the respondents, they did not prepare for the pandemic. The petitioner submitted that

As per several news reports and tweets of Mr. Amit Malviya- IT Chief of the Bhartiya Janata Party, the Central Government, vide a letter dated 07.04.2020 had requested all the State Governments to grant permissions to manufacturers of industrial oxygen to manufacture medical oxygen. Further, the Central Government had released funds to set up eight oxygen plants in Delhi back in December 2020, but the State of NCT of Delhi set up just 1, while spending the funds on advertisements, thereby leading to its acute shortage in hospitals.

 On the other hand, the State of NCT of Delhi vide a media statement dated 27.04.2021, stated that 162 plants were to be set up by Union Health Ministry through PM Cares fund, and not a single rupee was given to state governments. All these plants were supposed to have been installed by December 2020 and handed over to state governments. However, the Central government gave the contract for 140 of these plants to a single vendor, who ran away. As a result, across India not even 10 of these 162 plants have been made operational till date.

Amidst the un-precedent crisis and national medical emergency, the Respondents herein and different political parties are now blaming each other for deaths caused due to lack of oxygen, medicines and healthcare facilities, after having failed to make coordinated efforts for mitigation, preparedness and capacity building, in terms of the DM Act, 2005.

The plea has submitted a Suggestive Measures: as follows:

(i) Directions shall be issued to the Respondents herein to effectively discharge their duties under the DM Act, 2005 and exercise their powers under the ED Act, 1897, to effectively combat and mitigate the impact of the second wave of COVID-19, and to submit a consolidated monthly status report of the same before this Hon‟ble Court, until the pandemic situation normalizes.  

(ii) Respondents herein shall be directed to request the NGOs operating within their respective territories, to assist them in forming a coordinated approach and in making efforts to ensure timely and effective assistance, whether medical or otherwise, to patients suffering from COVID-19. (iii) Respondent States herein shall be directed to set up, in a time-bound manner, such requisite number of oxygen plants within their territories as are necessary to meet the daily demand of medical oxygen within their respective territories.

(iv) Directions shall be issued to the Respondents herein to not allow/permit any further mass public gatherings, of more than 100 persons at a given date, place and time.

(v) Stringent punishment of deterrent nature shall be prescribed for those who hoard and/or black-market the essential medical items related with COVID-19 treatment, for example oxygen cylinders, vaccines, medicines etc.

(vi) Stringent punishment of deterrent nature shall be prescribed for those who permit and/or organize and/or participate in a public mass gathering of over 100 persons, provided that such a gathering exceeding the limit of 100 persons is organized without the prior permission of the concerned Hon‟ble High Courts.

(vii) Stringent punishment of deterrent nature shall be prescribed for those who do not wear masks outside their residences and/or who do not maintain adequate social distancing.

(viii) Directions shall be issued to the Respondents herein, particularly the Respondent No. 1 herein, to ensure compulsory, free vaccination of all Indian citizens.

(ix) Establishment of an “Essential Supplies Forecasting Tool” (“ESFT”) at every government and/or private Hospital, to help the concerned health workers estimate the potential requirements for essential supplies in the future for their respective hospitals/covid care centers.

(x) Government helpline numbers shall be established at Central, State, District and Taluk levels and the same shall be published in print, electronic and social media, on extremely urgent basis, for those who require oxygen cylinders, injections or medicines to fight COVID-19 or any other urgent medical aid or assistance.

(xi) Respondents shall be directed to file a consolidated status report before this Hon‟ble Court, in a time bound manner, regarding the number of COVID-19 patients who died because of shortage of oxygen and/or shortage of medicines, across the country.

(xii) Utilization of all resources and services, under the control of Central government, including all military and para-military services, except the forces present on the borders, to ensure proper use for general public of the Covid-19 supplies and essential services.

(xiii) Respondents shall formulate and implement schemes providing free education to the children of up to 21 years of age, especially those who have lost their families/ parent(s) due to COVID-19 within the territory of India.

(xiv) In order to address the ever increasing demands of doctors and medical personnel, trainee nurses and final year medical students may be invited to voluntarily serve in COVID-19 wards after elementary training and appropriate schemes must be formulated by the Respondents herein to offer them with government certificates of appreciation, government jobs-if possible and other basic privileges, in addition to a fixed remuneration for their services.

(xv) Distribution of oxygen must be from the nearest geographical area/point, in order to save time and ensure expeditious supply of oxygen to each and every State.

(xvi) Policy of „One Nation, one vaccine, one price‟ ought to be implemented with immediate effect.

(xvii) Establishment of COVID-19 First Line Treatment Centers (CFLTC), as adopted by the State of Kerala for converting spaces, other than hospitals for asymptomatic and mild COVID-19 patients. The implementation of CFLTC will ensure that ample of hospital beds will be available for all serious and critically COVID-19 affected people.

(xviii) Geofencing of COVID-19 patients and increase the capacity for testing, treating, tracking of COVID-19 patients as per the data available through geofencing.

(xix) In compliance of S. 35 (2)(a), as reproduced herein above, a PAN-India NGO Network must be established, supervised by the concerned District/Tehsil Legal Service Authority, to ensure (i) fair and proper distribution of the essential supplies along with (ii)

implementation of the welfare schemes and aid(s) set up by the Respondent at a door-to-door basis.

The said set-up will exponentially improve the coordination and will decrease the burden of responsibility on one single entity, thereby ensuring a (i) transparent and (ii) hassle-free system of functioning in distribution of all essential supplies, till the Tehsil level. The said PAN-India NGO network will assist in.