The Madras High Court on Tuesday refused to expand the scope of a public interest litigation (PIL) petition filed in September last for controlling the spread of dengue in Chennai city and issue a direction to the government to provide face masks free of cost to all people in the State to safeguard themselves from COVID-19.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy rejected the request made by advocate A.P. Suryaprakasam who insisted upon expanding his case and issuing certain directions to the government on COVID-19 since people were wearing non-reusable face masks for months together.
The lawyer told the court that he had also filed a sub-application in February this year with respect to COVID-19 and hence some directions could be issued to the government. He said the number of tests being done were not sufficient and there was a great amount of fear and anxiety among senior citizens.
Opposing his plea, State Government Pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayanan said the advocate should file a separate PIL petition seeking such a relief and not in a case related to dengue. In response, Mr. Suryaprakasam wondered how could the government harp on technicalities in issues related to public health.
However, the Chief Justice decided to stick to the issue of dengue in the present case since many cases on COVID-19 were being dealt with by other judges of the court. He directed the Greater Chennai Corporation Commissioner to file an action taken report within four weeks on the steps taken so far to control the spread of dengue.
