'No One Can Suppress Facts' : Supreme Court Pulls Up Gujarat Govt. Over Rajkot COVID-19 Hospital Fire

A Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan adjourned the matter to Thursday, while noting that the State could not suppress facts and that the same had to come out in a correct fashion.

Accordingly, the Apex Court directed Solicitor-General Tushar Mehta to look into the matter.

In today's hearing, the SG submitted to the Court that the Centre had issued guidelines under the National Disaster Management Act and that the Affidavit had been filed the previous day. However, the Bench stated that they were yet to receive it.

Justice MR Shah, who was also a part of the Bench, then reprimanded the Government of Gujarat – "We have seen your counter-affidavit. Your stand is contrary to your Chief Electrical Engineer. As per your Counter, everything is good!".

Justice Shah went on to inform the State that no one could suppress facts and they had to come out in the correct fashion.

At this juncture, the SG informed the Court that an Inquiry Committee had been constituted. To this, the Court stated that that was fine for Rajkot, however, there was also a case in Ahmedabad wherein seven people had died.

Matter will now be heard on the coming Thursday.

The Court had taken suo moto cognizance of the fire which had broken out in the Rajkot hospital and stated that the breaking of fires in COVID-19 hospitals was repetitive and, no legitimate measures were being taken by the authorities to mitigate and prevent them. The Court directed the Centre to bring on record the steps to prevent fires in hospitals and also directed the State of Gujarat to submit a report.

"The Court takes suo motu cognisance of the incident that happened today where 6 persons in Rajkot died due to fire in a covid designated hospital, not the first incident. These incidents are repeated and we notice that no complete steps being taken by states nor is there any mechanism to abrogate the situation. The SG submits that he is aware of the incident and he will ensure that steps are taken by tomorrow and that he will inform the court regarding steps taken on the next date. We also direct the Counsel of Gujarat to submit a report by Tuesday when the matter is taken up next", a Bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan, R. Subhash Reddy and M R Shah ordered.