HC hauls up Telangana health chief for contempt as test fiat flouted

HYDERABAD: Telangana high court on Thursday slapped a contempt notice on director of public health Dr G Srinivasa Rao for not implementing the court order to increase Covid-19 tests. The court also took strong objection to an affidavit filed by Dr Rao, calling it an “eyewash”.
Recalling its November 19 order in which it said that the government and the health director must increase the number of tests, a bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy issued the contempt proceedings against him after hearing him in person and told the director to respond within two weeks, posting the case to Dec 17.
The court was upset with the intemperate language used in the affidavit in which Dr Rao said though the court had ordered him to increase the tests to 50,000 per day and also to conduct one lakh tests during one of the days in a week, he would increase the tests as and when the need arises. The judges said their Nov 19 order gave no such discretion to him.
The CJ said: “The public health director bestowed upon himself the judicial powers and said he would increase tests as and when the need arises. He says he will do it as and when he feels like doing it and feels that till then the HC order will be in cold storage. Who gave him the power to change my order? He has the courage to tell this to the high court. God alone can help him now.”
In a stern warning to all the officials for not acting on court orders with requisite seriousness, the judges said neighbouring AP is doing 1.85 lakh tests per million and Delhi is doing 2.85 lakh tests, whereas Telangana is conducting just 1.32 lakh tests per million. “Winter has set in and there is a danger of a second wave of Covid-19 looming over us. The state is not prepared to face the wrath of the furious second wave. The government has not deployed any mechanism to ensure that people are maintaining social distancing and wearing masks during the ongoing GHMC elections, the judges said,
Advocate general B S Prasad made an appeal to the bench that the language used by the health director in the affidavit was not intentional and assured the court that it would be rectified. He urged the court not to issue any contempt proceedings, but the judges did not relent.
The judges said as per the numbers in the affidavit, Covid-19 tests did not cross 43,000 in five days in the last seven days. On Nov 24, it went up to 47,000 and on Nov 22, it was a mere 24,000. “The government did not set up more number of RT-PCR labs as promised.”
Directing the government to constitute a committee to analyse the traits of the virus, the judges said this may help the state to devise ways and means to tackle the pandemic.