Today, the Government of India has filed the counter affidavit before the Supreme Court on the Writ Petition filed for separate residential facilities for doctors treating COVID19 patients.
In the Central Government’s reply, it was mentioned that “Large number of make-shift hospitals will have to be set upexpecting a patient surge”.
It was submitted by GOI before the Supreme Court that “number of cases of COVID are constantly increasing and at some point of time in near future, apart from existing hospitals , large number of temporary make-shift hospitals will have to be created in order to accommodate COVID 19 patients requiring admission, medical care and treatment. To successfully create an optimum infrastructure to provide best medical care to COVID patients, Centre will adequately address human resource issue for this envisaged surge capacity scenario.Hence conserving health care work force is the need of the hour in order to cater to the anticipated patient load in the hour of distress”.
The Supreme Court three-judge bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice M.R. Shah has given time to the petitioner to respond to the Government’s reply by the next date of hearing which is June, 12.
The PIL was filed by Dr Arushi Jain, through Advocates Mithu Jain, and Arjun Syal seeking separate residential facilities, closer to hospitals, for doctors treating patients affected by the novel Coronavirus. On previous date of hearing, the Supreme Court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to seek instructions on whether accommodation close to hospitals can be made for doctors handling COVID-19 cases.
-India Legal Bureau