Lekha G
The Allahabad High Court inquired the Lucknow District Magistrate in respect to two private hospitals that claimed that due to shortage of Oxygen supply several Covid patients had died on their premises.
A Division Bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar asked the District Magistrate to submit an action-taken report if the hospitals deliberately created an atmosphere of fear among people to serve their vested interests.
The District Magistrate appeared before the Bench and submitted that he had already conducted a preliminary investigation into the matter and found that the Sun Hospital contained the required oxygen supply as six jumbo oxygen cylinders were reported to be available on the day the notice was published by the hospital.
He further submitted that as far as the other hospital was concerned, it was a non-covid hospital illegally admitting Covid patients.
The Director of the Sun Hospital was booked under Sections 188 and 269 of the Indian Penal Code, Sections 51 and 52 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act.
Regarding the deaths of Covid patients due to lack of oxygen at Meerut, the District Magistrate submitted that deaths were not caused due to shortage of supply of oxygen but due to some other reasons which he could not further justify.
“The District Magistrate, Meerut, in our considered view, has not conducted enquiry in the letter and spirit of the mandate contained in our order. He should have obtained specific information especially when judicial notice had been taken of the viral news item and concrete material should have been placed before us as a reply to our query. We accordingly direct that the District Magistrate, Meerut shall hold a comprehensive investigation into the matter and will submit a report to the Court again by personally appearing online on the next date fixed”, the Court said.
Further, the Division Bench directed all concerned Magistrates in the State of Uttar Pradesh to dispose of case properties like life-saving drugs namely Remdesivir, oxygen cylinders and oximeters and other related articles within a week of the case being heard.
The Court further directed the Additional Advocate General to notify the Court regarding the action taken by the State Government to deal with the pandemic in rural, sub-urban areas and smaller cities of the State.
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