PIL in SC for probe into Covid ‘mismanagement’

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 12

A PIL has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking an inquiry into the alleged mismanagement of Covid-19 pandemic, saying it was essential to inquire into the “lapses”.

Accusing the Centre of failing to undertake timely and effective measures to check transmission of Covid-19, the PIL demanded an independent inquiry by a commission headed by former judges of the top court appointed under the Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952.

Filed by six persons, including some former bureaucrats through advocate Prashant Bhushan, the petition is likely to be taken up on Friday.

What the plea states

• Filed by six persons, including some former bureaucrats through advocate Prashant Bhushan, the petition is likely to be taken up on Friday
• The Centre’s response to the pandemic and its ‘deleterious impact’ on the lives and livelihoods of the citizens is a ‘definite matter of public importance and warrants appointment of a commission’ under Section 3 of the Act, it submitted

The Centre’s response to the pandemic and its “deleterious impact” on the lives and livelihoods of the citizens is a “definite matter of public importance and warrants appointment of a commission” under section 3 of the Act, it submitted.

The nationwide lockdown and the manner in which it was implemented has had a “devastating impact” on jobs, livelihood and the overall economy, the PIL alleged, terming it “arbitrary, irrational and without due consultation with experts or state governments”.

“In spite of being the harshest and most restrictive lockdown in the world, it has failed to arrest the spread of the disease,” the PIL submitted.

Referring to the “exodus” of migrant workers during the lockdown from cities to their hometowns, it alleged that the authorities failed to draw up a national plan and issue guidelines for providing relief to vulnerable sections under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. There was a delay in ensuring adequate supplies of PPE during the pandemic, it submitted.