Why is Delhi govt resisting court monitoring of testing in city, asks HC | Latest News Delhi - Hindustan Times
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Why is Delhi govt resisting court monitoring of testing in city, asks HC

Hindustan Times, New Delhi | ByRicha Banka, New Delhi
Aug 05, 2020 01:49 AM IST

Delhi HC’s remark came after the Delhi government told the court that issues raised (by other pleas) have already been addressed and adequate steps have been taken to manage health care and other services in the national capital.

The Delhi high court on Tuesday said it did not understand the reason for the Delhi government’s “resistance” to the courts monitoring from time to time the ramping up of Covid-19 testing in the city.

The bench also said in the course of the past two months, rapid expansion has taken place in terms of testing as the Delhi government understood the breadth of the infection and took measures to deal with it.
The bench also said in the course of the past two months, rapid expansion has taken place in terms of testing as the Delhi government understood the breadth of the infection and took measures to deal with it.

The remark came after the Delhi government told the court that issues raised (by other pleas) have already been addressed and adequate steps have been taken to manage health care and other services in the national capital.

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A bench of justice Hima Kohli and justice Subramonium Prasad, while hearing a plea filed through advocate Rakesh Malhotra seeking to increase Covid-19 testing in the city, was told by the Delhi government counsel that last week, another bench of the Delhi high court had disposed of a similar plea during which the court had noted that adequate steps have been taken by the government to fight the pandemic.

Delhi government counsel Satyakam also raised questions on the maintainability of the application and said the petitioner should have filed a separate petition rather than filing an application in an already disposed of matter.

He said such applications can be filed only for making corrections/modifications in the order but not for raising fresh concerns and hence the matter should not be heard any further.

However, the court said the earlier pleas, which were decided by the other benches, were concerned with the treatment, availability of beds, personal protective equipment kits, ambulances and denial of treatment to patients.

The bench also said in the course of the past two months, rapid expansion has taken place in terms of testing as the Delhi government understood the breadth of the infection and took measures to deal with it. It also said that taking note of the orders and facts in place, lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal had also constituted a committee to look into Covid-19 testing and care.

“...the resistance of the Delhi government to this court monitoring the progress made in ramping up the testing, is incomprehensible when admittedly, this is not an adversarial litigation and it is purely in the interest of the citizens of Delhi that all government departments and agencies act in tandem and work collectively to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic for larger public good. The technical plea taken by the government on the maintainability of an application in a disposed of matter would have engaged this Court had it been a routine litigation between two private parties. This is not so here,” the court said.

During the hearing, the Delhi government, in a status report, told the court that the mandate of the Delhi government is to ramp up testing and deploy a combination of both rapid antigen testing and RT-PCR testing in such a manner that all categories of vulnerable groups and areas are covered.

It also said the Delhi government, till July 30, had conducted 5,24,431 RT-PCR tests -- 27,604 tests per million -- which are more than double the national average of 13,647 tests per million.

It asked the Delhi government to file a fresh status report and posted the matter for August 19.

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