The Sikkim High Court on Tuesday, while hearing the Suo Moto Public Interest Litigation for Covid-19 management observed that “We do understand that formulating a good policy may require a huge amount of brainstorming and resource collection in the present situation, let the policy framing may not be an excuse to strengthen up and build on the capabilities of the infrastructural and human resource to meet the 3rd wave, which today, does seem likely to happen. The augmentation must go on.”

Earlier on  23.06.2021, the Division Bench comprising Justices Meenakshi Madan Rai and Bhaskar Raj Pradhan had expressed concerns over the woefully low number of hospital beds available in the State for treatment of Covid-19 patients. Accordingly, it sought a report from the State as to the course of action it proposes to take. In response to the order, the State of Sikkim has submitted the report before the High Court on 05.07.2021.

The affidavit (report) deals with four things. Firstly, it deals with the covid care facilities in the State. Secondly, it deals with the vaccination drive of the State. Thirdly, it deals with the proposed setting up of Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL) and finally, with regard to the proposed policy to meet the third wave.

With regard to the Covid care facilities, it is submitted that there is one Covid Dedicated Hospital, 2 Dedicated Covid Health Centres and 28 Covid Care Centres in the State. The affidavit assures the High Court that these facilities have been established in accordance with the guidelines issued by the Centre. A district-wise covid facility table has also been provided.

On July 07, during the hearing of the Petition, the Court observed that the affidavit is, however, silent on which guideline has been followed by the State, what was the requirement as per the guidelines and what are the measures taken and facilities provided as per the guidelines including the human resources.

“The Chart reflects the availability of Medical Officer, Staff Nurse or Medical Attendant only in some Covid Care Centres. A perusal of the chart with the data for 8 Covid Care Centres in the North district, which does not admittedly have even a dedicated Covid Health Centre, reflects a rather grim situation. Each of these centres, having between 5 to 54 beds, seems to be manned by only one human resource.”

The Court said that State has not thought it fit to apprise the High Court, what level of human resources is available in these Covid Care Centres. The chart also reflects that these Covid Care Centres have been provided with medical facilities. “However, the affidavit is silent as to what was the requirement of the guidelines and whether the medical facilities provided in these Covid Care Centres satisfies the guidelines. We are not satisfied with the affidavit.”

The State through its affidavit submitted that the vaccines are allotted by the Centre in an equitable manner as per the population of the State. Once the vaccines arrive at the State Vaccine Store in STNM Hospital, Gangtok, the State Immunization Officer allocates the vaccines to the districts keeping certain factors in mind, such as target population to be covered in the districts, availability of vaccines in the various levels of the districts, daily consumption of vaccines per day, etc. “The affidavit, however, is silent about any attempt being made by the State to communicate with the Centre to increase the quota of vaccines keeping in mind the unique factors in the Sikkim situation highlighted in our order dated 23.06.2021”, observed the Court.

In so far as setting up of VRDL is concerned, the affidavit stated that the request of the State for setting up VRDL at district Namchi had been refused to vide letter dated 24.06.2021. The State has neither provided a copy of the letter dated 24.06.2021 nor provided any information as to why it was refused. The Court is of the view that it becomes more important because of the previous orders passed by the High Court, “whereby we had implored the Centre as well as the State to act in unison to set up such testing facilities in all the districts of Sikkim.”

The Bench noted that the State respondents have requested for Mobile I-LABS as well as two Mobile Testing Laboratories and the State respondents have approved the proposal of TATA MEDICAL AND DIAGNOSTIC (TATA MD) to establish RT PCR laboratory for the Namchi and Gyalshing District Hospitals, within 6 to 8 weeks.

With regard to the ambulances, the  Additional Advocate General concedes that there is a mismatch between what is stated in the affidavit and what is stated in the chart provided. He seeks to rectify it.

During the hearing, Jorgay Namka, Amicus Curiae raised an issue before the High Court about action being sought to be taken by the State Government against a Medical Practitioner for unauthorized RAT testing, under the signature of the Director (ADM), Health & Family Welfare Department. The Additional Advocate General seeks time to file a response to this as well.

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The Court took cognizance of the situation based on the news item in the Sikkim Express dated 7th July 2021, titled “Covid outbreak in South shelter home”. It is reported that 25 covid positive cases have been reported from Mangalbarey in South District including 16 from a shelter home there. It is further reported that the infected children and the staff of Mangalbarey shelter home have been shifted to Covid Care Centre at CCCT Chisopani. The report further mentioned that recently 21 children and 3 caretakers of a Child Care Institute at Rabongla had tested COVID-19 positive and are presently admitted at the Covid care centre, Kamrang. The report also voices the concern that shelter homes, childcare institutions and other similar institutions cannot totally follow the COVID-19 protocols like social distancing for practical reasons and as such few initial COVID-19 cases quickly infect the other persons staying in institutions and become covid hotspots.

“We are concerned and take cognizance of this news report and seek a report from the State respondents. More importantly, as time is of the essence, we direct the State to immediately take stock of the situation in all shelter homes, childcare institutions, old age homes, destitute homes, observation homes, open shelters, places of safety, special homes and all other such care facilities available in the State, both governmental and non-governmental, to insulate the inmates and staff from the pandemic. Although we are concerned about the limitations of human resources with the State Government, we implore the State Government to take all such measures including vaccinating those eligible in these care facilities, at the earliest,” the order reads.

The matter is listed on July 28, for further hearing.

New Delhi (ILNS): The Delhi High Court today took up the case of jail inmates misusing the court’s order of bail during Covid, granted on humanitarian grounds. The court also issued notice in an application seeking modification of its earlier order extending the interim bail of those prisoners till October 31.

A three-judge bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justices Siddharth Mridul and Talwant Singh directed the jail authorities to submit the latest data on number of COVID-19 positive inmates in jail and number of inmates out on interim bail. 

The plea has been filed by advocate Amit Prasad, Special Public Prosecutor for the Delhi riots, stating that a trial court has noted that the order providing interim bail to inmates amid COVID-19 is being misused by the inmates.

Prasad submitted that the accused are seeking interim bail on humanitarian grounds instead of regular bail in the cases under section 302 of IPC and are getting a regular extension of the same.

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The bench has allowed time to the state to file data on the number of COVID-19 positive inmates in jail and the number of inmates out on bail and has further directed the Director General (Prison) to be present before the court on the next date of hearing.

The bench will be hearing the matter on October 16.

-ILNS

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday has directed Correctional Home authorities to open a bank account and to provide all particulars for facilitating deposits on their website and once deposits are made by the family members/ relatives of any inmate in such bank account, the same shall be utilized in a manner that benefits him, according to law.

The Court direction came following a grievance raised by Mr. Desai that the system of transmitting money, by money orders having been discontinued for the present, the family members/relatives of the inmates of the Correctional Homes are no longer in a position to provide money to them for purchase of essentials from the canteens of the Correctional Homes and, therefore, separate bank accounts for all the inmates ought to be opened where deposits can be made by such family members/relatives of the inmates.

Learned public prosecutor Mr. Thakare has invited attention of Court to a circular dated April 8, 2020 which provides that the Jailor shall open a bank account and provide all particulars for facilitating deposits.

The Court said, “Having read such circular, we direct the Correctional Homes authorities to implement the instruction therein immediately. The bank account number as well as all other requisite particulars for transfer of money shall be displayed by the Correctional Homes authorities on their website for information of all concerned.”

On the grievance of the petitioner’s counsel that although the State has taken steps to bring down the number of inmates by following the guidelines issued by the High Powered Committee, 14,000 + bail applications are pending before diverse criminal courts and keeping such large number of applications pending tends to frustrate the purpose for which the High Powered Committee came to be constituted in terms of the Supreme Court’s order, the Bombay High Court held that :-

“Even though the High-Powered Committee has delineated categories of under-trial prisoners who would be entitled to release on interim bail, we are of the opinion that the relevant courts are not supposed to act as mere post-offices and allow applications without application of mind”. 

“We have no doubt in our mind that in the light of the guidelines issued by the High Powered Committee, the relevant courts, to the best of its ability and with the resources available at its disposal, have seen striving to take appropriate steps to dispose of as many applications for bail as possible in accordance with law and in the light of the guidelines of the High Powered Committee. No direction as such is required to be made, since we hope and trust that no application for bail shall be kept pending unnecessarily”.

A Division bench of Bombay High Court led by the Chief Justice, Dipankar Datta and Justice K.K. Tated heard two PILs, whereby several grievances were raised by the petitioner’s Counsel Mr. Desai.

The learned Counsel for the petitioners contended before the court that 158 inmates of Arthur Road Correctional Home have tested positive for Covid-19 and since the spread of Covid-19 is by way of transmission from one to the other, there is an imminent need to have other inmates of the Correctional Home, who might have come into contact with the Covid-19 positive inmates, tested, so as to prevent further spread of the infection.

The petitioner’s counsel prayed that although family members/relatives of inmates of Correctional Homes other than Arthur Road Correctional Home are being informed of a particular inmate having been infected by the virus, there is no system of informing the family members/relatives of Covid positive inmates of Arthur Road Correctional Home. On which the public prosecutor had said before the High Court that “the family members/relatives of the inmates of Arthur Road Correctional Home, who have tested positive, would be duly informed”.

Later, he also prayed that the Correctional Home authorities may be directed to ensure that each inmate can at least establish contact with his/her family members/relatives through two phone calls per week.

The High Court on the above issue said that However, having regard to the uncertainties of connectivity, an additional facility of allowing the inmates to reach out to their family members/relatives by making phone calls could be allowed till such time Video Conferencing facilities are commissioned and even thereafter, if there is lack of connectivity. The number of phone calls per week per inmate, the duration of the phone calls and the days on which the same may be allowed are left entirely to the discretion of the Correctional Home authorities.

The Court has adjourned the matter for two weeks.

-India Legal Bureau

MANY years ago, as a psychologist working in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, I had asked the inmates if their sleep was disturbed and if so, how much. All of them said that their sleep was severely disturbed. Many also had nightmares. Most of them slept for just a few hours every night with recurrent nightmares and remained awake the rest of the time. It remained like this as long as they were inside the prison. Was it linked to the crime they had committed? When I asked them why they couldn’t sleep, one of them suggested that I sleep in my own home with the door locked from outside. I did as he said as an experiment and then understood what he meant. I could not sleep the entire night and when I woke up, I felt a lack of control over myself.

There is a lesson inherent in the above story—control is a basic issue for all humans. We take certain structures as given in our lives and we have control over these. We go through our daily routine as if we will always remain the same. Any interference and our structured lives spin out of control. Our mental health, identity, sense of well-being receive a jolt and start orbiting in a world of chaos and disorder.

While working with marginalised groups, societies that face persecution, refugees who ran away and survivors of genocide and natural disasters, I have found that retaining control over one’s life is a core issue that defines stability. However, Covid-19 has turned our daily lives upside down as we are unable to step out of our homes, we are restrained from getting close to others and have to maintain social distance. Proximity has become the new dirty word and something we took for granted earlier.

In India, we love proximity or nearness. We create bonds faster than any where else and start conversing, talking, getting inquisitive and asking personal questions. Take any train journey. By the time it ends, we know everything about each other. At any bank or railway counter, we gather around, our hands over each other. Our traffic is also bizarrely close with everyone trying to avoid each other at the same time. Co-existence some would call it, while others would find it difficult to survive in such a situation. So the lockdown is a cultural issue too in India and trying to see it from a western paradigm where individuality matters most would be problematic.

As I speak to friends in Europe and America, mostly professionals in mental health and social sciences, they share feelings of being disturbed. I don’t hear the same sense of alienation from my local friends. Are we Indians then responding to the lockdown differently?

Many years ago, Dr George Kohlrieser, author of Hostage at the Table and an internationally known authority on human bonding, had visited India. This former professor of mine had travelled extensively all over the country. A few months after his visit, when I had asked him about his travels, he replied after a moment’s reflection that the whole time he was here he didn’t hear a baby cry. Whenever he saw one cry, someone would come and pick it up. While going back, he stopped at Amsterdam airport and he noticed a baby crying. People passed by without anyone bothering to check on him. His mother was busy shopping. “That’s when I realised that your society has this ability to create proximity and bonding. It can also become your biggest strength in times of crisis.”

Today, my professor’s words ring true in my ears as I watch people bonding once again. This time it is happening in the confines of our homes. There is a bewildering array of initiatives as to how we must deal with this time period. In the last week alone, I have attended half a dozen webinars on dealing with coronavirus. One said develop a hobby, another advised reading books, while a third said we should become more productive and a fourth said try meditation. But perhaps the best answer was given by a patient of mine who said: “During this period, my parents and I are talking to each other. It is the first time that I felt that we were bonding, a bonding that never was. We have become friends and I never thought we would do so.”

In our time-starved lives, all of us have become distant from each other. Living in a digitalised world, feelings and emotions had taken a backseat. Can we use this period to think of relationships that would be different if we started talking with each other?

At an individual level, the lockdown is doing different things to us. While it is bringing to the fore what is lying dormant in us, for those who are anxious and depressed, it makes them even more so. Will certain mental health problems increase now? They may, but these can be brought under control just the same way they were earlier, maybe with innovation and creativity.

The other day, I heard a child cry out in pain in an apartment close to mine. In no time, several lights in nearby apartments were switched on. Neighbours came out to check and knocked on the door. The father had slapped his kids. Their mother was not at home and he hadn’t been able to cook properly and the children were hungry. In no time, two of our neighbours turned counsellors and calmed him down. Rotis and vegetables along with a chocolate sprang up from now­here and several neighbours decided to cook by turn for them till the mother came back. It is a story I will remember all my life.

Yes, there may be issues like incest, pedophilia and domestic abuse that may increase during this period. Depression and schizophrenia may show an incr­ease too as those support systems may not be available now. Alternative support systems can be created. Chaos and disorder can give way to new structures that provide safety. Greater awareness and interventions like the above can make us more responsible citizens.

In wars, epidemics and natural disasters, we learn to fall back on ourselves to find answers for the problems confronting us. The lessons are deep and lifelong and as the saying goes: “The world teaches its own lessons no one else can.” Covid-19 has become the world and is teaching us new lessons both for our survival and the things we took for granted. We will find new ways to co-exist and may one day look back upon the present period, not so much with terror, as with gratitude.

The writer is Professor of Psychology, Amity University

Lead Visual: Amitava Sen