Observing that the West Bengal government should give a deeper look at undertaking more COVID-19 tests on a “war footing”, the Calcutta High Court said that the guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) should be followed by all stakeholders including the State’s administration.
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“We are of the view that WHO and ICMR being expert authorities in the field, their guidelines and advisories are required to be followed by all stakeholders including the State Administration and we are sure the same shall be done,” Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice Arijit Banerjee ruled on Friday.
The court’s order came in response to a clutch of PILs in which the petitioners had raised issues including the need for more testing, ensuring the protection of medical professionals and the State’s decision to set up an audit committee to look into all deaths of COVID-19 positive cases .
“We are of the view that it is necessary that the official respondents give a deeper look to the requirement of more number of samples being collected and subjected to tests on war footing,” the bench ruled.
The State’s response as recorded in the order states: “there are seven testing laboratories (including 5 government and 2 private) in the State and there are several more which are in the process of being developed. It is a matter of record that currently, as a result of the rise in the number of ICMR approved laboratories, more than 300 samples are being tested daily. This figure is expected to increase in the days ahead”.
Among the petitioners were Communist Party of India (Marxist) member Fuad Halim and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ritesh Tewari. The State had raised objections about maintainability stating that the petition was “actuated with political motives”. The court, however, overruled the objection asserting that “this is not an occasion or time for us to consider the maintainability of this writ petition and this is not a matter which should be thrown out at the threshold”. “We may here and now note that the virus... makes no distinction on the basis of caste, creed, colour, sex, religion, domicile or geographical identity to affect any person in any economic strata. Therefore, we are of the view that the identifying characteristic to consider whether there is public interest in this litigation need not presently stall the further proceedings in the matter,” the bench added.
While the court took note of the concerns raised by petitioners against the manner of certification and auditing of the reason for death before issuing the Death Certificate, the bench stated it “would not venture to say anything on that aspect now and expects the State Government to place their response in this regard with the views of the health personnel concerned”. The State government has set up an expert committee of doctors who are looking into the death of persons who test positive for COVID-19. Cases where there are no co-morbidities are being listed as COVID-19 deaths in the State and the rest are being looked into by the committee to determine whether they can be described as COVID-19 deaths or not.
The court has asked the State to file an affidavit on the issues raised by petitioners including on the compliance of WHO and ICMR guidelines on the pandemic. The matter will come up for hearing again on April 23.
