Dilip Gadhavi vs. The State Of Gujarat

ITEM NO.26 Court 5 (Video Conferencing) SECTION PIL-W

SUPREME COURT OF INDIA RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS

SUO MOTO WRIT PETITION (CIVIL) No.7/2020

THE PROPER TREATMENT OF COVID 19 PATIENTS AND DIGNIFIED IN RE: HANDLING OF DEAD BODIES IN THE HOSPITALS ETC.

(With appln.(s) for APPLICATION FOR EXEMPTION FROM FILING ORIGINAL VAKALATNAMA/OTHER DOCUMENT, APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS. CLARIFICATION/DIRECTION, EARLY HEARING APPLICATION, EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT, EXEMPTION FROM PAYING COURT FEE, INTERVENTION APPLICATION, INTERVENTION/IMPLEADMENT, PERMISSION TO APPEAR AND ARGUE IN PERSON and PERMISSION TO FILE ADDITIONAL DOCUMENTS/FACTS/ ANNEXURES)

WITH S.L.P.(C) Nos.6381-6382/2021 (III) (With appln.(s) for I.R. and IA No.55834/2021-EXEMPTION FROM FILING C/C OF THE IMPUGNED JUDGMENT and IA No.55832/2021-EXEMPTION FROM FILING O.T. and IA No.55837/2021-EXEMPTION FROM FILING AFFIDAVIT)

Date: 19-07-2021 These matters were called on for hearing today.

CORAM:

HON'BLE DR. JUSTICE D.Y. CHANDRACHUD HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE M.R. SHAH

For Petitioner(s)

By Courts Motion, AOR

Mr. Dushvant Dave, Sr. Adv. SLP 6381-82/2021 Ms. Aparna Bhat, AOR Ms. Marishma Maria, Adv. Ms. Neha Sangwan, Adv. $\mathcal{L}{\mathcal{L}} = \mathcal{L}{\mathcal{L}}$ $\mathcal{L} = \mathcal{L} \mathcal{L}$ $\cdot$ $\cdot$

	For Respondent(s) Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG
	Mr. K.M. Natraj, ASG
Signature Not Verified<br>$\frac{1}{\text{Digitally signed}}$<br>Digitally signed by Chetan Kuman	Mr. Kanu Agarwal, Adv.
Date: $2024.07.20$<br>7:31:27 IST

Mr. Rajat Nair, Adv. Mr. Prashant Singh(B), Adv. Mr. Saurabh Mishra, Adv. Mr. Raj Bahadur Yadav, Adv. Mr. Amrish Kumar, Adv. Mr. Mohd. Akhil, Adv. Mr. B.V. Balram Das, AOR Mr. Shubhranshu Padhi, AOR Mr. Ashish Yadav, Adv. Mr. Rakshit Jain, Adv. Mr. Vishal Banshal, Adv. Mr. Gurmeet Singh Makker, AOR Mr. Tushar Mehta, SG Mr. Maninder Singh, Sr. Adv. Ms. Manisha Lavkumar, Sr. Adv. Mr. Aniruddha P. Mayee, AOR Ms. Garima Prashad, AOR Mr. Pawanshree Agrawal, AOR Mr. Ashish Wad, Adv. Ms. Tamali Wad, Adv. Mr. Sidharth Mahajan, Adv. Ms. Sukriti Jaggi, Adv. Mr. Ajeyo Sharma, Adv. M/s. J S Wad And Co. Mr. Biju P Raman, AOR Dr. Monika Gusain, AOR Mr. Himanshu Tyagi, AOR Mr. K.V. Jagdishvaran, Adv. Ms. G. Indira, AOR Mr. M. Yogesh Kanna, AOR Mr. Gaurav Agrawal, AOR Ms. K. Enatoli Sema, AOR

Ms. Astha Sharma, AOR Mr. Shibashish Misra, AOR Mr. S. Udaya Kumar Sagar, AOR Ms. Sweena Nair, Adv. Mr. Talha Abdul Rahman, AOR Mr. Nalin Kohli, Adv. Mr. Sidharth Sethi, AOR Mr. Avinash Das, Adv. Mr. Rohit Anil Rathi, AOR Mr. Atul Nanda, Sr. Adv. Ms. Uttara Babbar, AOR Mr. Manan Bansal, Adv. Ms. Shweta Mohta, Adv. Mr. Anish Kumar Gupta, AOR Ms. Archana Preeti Gupta, Adv. Mr. Chandra Shekhar Suman, Adv. Mr. Avdhesh Kumar Singh, Adv. Ms. Rita Gupta, Adv. Mr. Atul Sharma, AOR Mr. G.M. Kawoosa, Adv. Mrs. Taruna A Prasad, Adv. Mr. Parth Awashi, Adv. Ms. Manjula Gupta, AOR Mr. Shuvodeep Roy, AOR Mr. Kabir Shankar Bose, Adv. M/s. Plr Chambers And Co. Mr. Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, AOR Mr. Polanki Gowtham, Adv. Mr. Shaik Mohamad Haneef, Adv. Mr. T. Vijaya Bhaskar Reddy, Adv. Mr. Amitabh Sinha, Adv.

Mr. K.V. Girish Chowdary, Adv.

4

	Mr. Roshan Santhalia, AOR
	Mr. G. Prakash, AOR<br>Mr. Jishnu M.L., Adv.<br>Ms. Priyanka Prakash, Adv.<br>Ms. Beena Prakash, Adv.
	Mr. Chirag M. Shroff, AOR
	Ms. Aswathi M.K., AOR
	Mr. Raghvendra Kumar, Adv.<br>Mr. Anand Kumar Dubey, Adv.<br>Mr. Narendra Kumar, AOR
	Dr. Manish Singhvi, Sr. Adv.<br>Mr. Sandeep Kumar Jha, AOR
For Maharashtra	Mr. Rahul Chitnis, Adv.<br>Mr. Sachin Patil, AOR<br>Mr. Aaditya A Pande, Adv.<br>Mr. Geo Joseph, Adv.
For Bihar	Mr. Azmat Hayat Amanullah, AOR
For Meghalaya	Mr. Amit Kumar, Adv.Gen.<br>Mr. Avijit Mani Tripathi, AOR<br>Mr. Shaurya Sahay, Adv.<br>Ms. Rekha Bakshi, Adv.<br>Mr. K.V. Kharlyngdoh, Adv.
	Mr. Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, AOR
	Applicant-in-person
	Kumar Anurag Singh,<br>Mr. Saurabh Jain, Adv.<br>Mr. Anando Mukherjee, AOR
	Mr. Awanish Sinha, AOR
	Mr. Abhimanyu Tewari, AOR<br>Ms. Eliza Bar, Adv.

Ms. Aparna Bhat, AOR Ms. Karishma Maria, Adv. Mr. Aravindh S., Adv. Mr. Manoj V George, Adv. Mr. Philomena Thomas, Adv. Mr. Renjit V Philip, Adv. Mr. Saurabh Luthra, Adv. Ms. Shilpa Liza George, Adv. For Mizoram Mr. Siddhesh Kotwal, Adv. Ms. Manya Hasija, Adv. Ms. Ana Upadhyay

UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following O R D E R

• 1 By the order of this Court dated 18 December 2020, three specific directions were issued in regard to the maintenance and audit of fire safety measures in hospitals earmarked for Covid patients:
  • (i) All States and Union Territories were directed to appoint one nodal officer for each Covid hospital, who was to be made responsible for ensuring compliance of safety measures;
  • (ii) In each district, the State Government was to constitute a committee to carry on a fire audit of each Covid hospital at least once every month, inform the hospital management of any deficiency and to furnish a report to the government for taking follow up action.
  • (iii) Covid hospitals who have not obtained NOCs from the fire department were required to apply it immediately. These orders were to be followed for the immediate renewal of the NOCs. In the event that any Covid hospital was found not possessing an NOC including a renewal, appropriate action was directed to be taken by the State.
• 2 During the course of the hearing, it has transpired that on 8 July 2021, a

SMW(C) 7/2020

Notification has been issued by the State Government, by which an extended timeline has been issued for rectifying compliances for a period of three months commencing from the last date of the applicability of the Gujarat Epidemic Diseases Regulations 2020. The Court has been informed that the last date being 31 March 2022, the extended period of three months would commence thereafter. The issue whether the Notification has been issued in breach of the directions which were issued by this Court would merit being considered. Before we consider the matter any further, we are of the view that this aspect should be explained on affidavit by the State of Gujarat.

• 3 The Court has been apprised of the fact that the report of the Commission of Enquiry headed by Justice P M Mehta has been submitted to the State Government. Mr Maninder Singh, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the State of Gujarat with Ms Manisha Lavkumar, learned GP states that a copy of the report will be produced before this Court together with the action which has been taken by the State of Gujarat with reference to the recommendations which are contained in the report.
• 4 An affidavit dealing with both the aspects which have been referred to above shall be filed within a period of one week from today.
• 5 The State of Gujarat shall also file before this Court a comprehensive statement indicating (i) the audits which were conducted in pursuance of the order dated 18 December 2020; and (ii) the result of the audits specifically in terms of which hospitals were found not to be in compliance with the safety and other norms under the Development Control Regulations.
• 6 Mr Dushyant Dave, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners in SLP(C) Nos 6381-6382 of 2021 states that SLP(C) No 7546 of 2021 pending before this Court involves issues which may have a bearing on the subject matter of the present proceedings. On this aspect, he has, therefore, submitted that the aforesaid Special Leave Petition may be directed to be heard with the present batch of cases. We request the Registry

to place the matter before Hon'ble the Chief Justice of India on the administrative side so that such directions as are considered appropriate may be issued.

7 List the Petition on 2 August 2021.

(CHETAN KUMAR) (SAROJ KUMARI GAUR) A.R.-cum-P.S. Court Master