Snehal Upadhyay–
The High Court of Orissa dismissed the PIL filed by Berhampur based Bharatiya Bikash Parishad who was seeking for direction for purchase of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines by the state government in order to treat critical COVID-19 patients.
Earlier on 10th June, the Court had dismissed another PIL filed by Bharatiya Bikash Parishad seeking installation of CCTV cameras and display boards in all the hospitals where the treatment of COVID-19 is going on, this PIL was filed in order to bring transparency between the public and Corona patients.
The division bench comprising Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice SK Panigrahi while dismissing the PIL said that, “This being another PIL filed by the same petitioner within a short span of one month purely on the basis of press reports without undertaking any study in depth of the pertaining issue.”
The Court observed that the petitioner projects their personal view on ECMO machines and hence is avoiding its drawbacks.
“Petition appears to project the personal view of the president of the petitioner organization that it is more important to procure ECMO machines to tackle the Covid pandemic than procuring and distributing face masks to the public. These personal views are of course not backed by any scientific or medical studies,” the court observed.
The Court permitted the counsel for the petitioner to make a complete study of medical and scientific literature and collect more relevant facts pertaining to the issue and hence present it in a detailed and objective manner in a new petition.