The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Delhi Government on a plea seeking direction to formulate and implement an effective and concrete plan with sufficient infrastructure to provide certain facilities to the dead bodies, probably infected from Novel Coronavirus, including mortuary, funeral, transportation and handling facilities in this high time of urgency.
A Division Bench of the Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the Delhi Government, returnable by the next date of hearing, which is June 4, 2021. The petition was preferred by Advocate Mukden Ur Rehman, after going through an article published in the Outlook dated May 6, 2021, with the heading “Covid Nightmares: 4-Year-Old Watches His Grandparents Corpses Decay For A Day,” further stating “A child in a Covid infected family watches his grandparents die and decay before him, while his father pleads in vain with neighbours and strangers for help. Welcome to Delhi.”
The petitioner submitted that the people of Delhi need a dedicated facility from the Government to help them in handling and transporting the dead bodies infected with COVID-19, mortuaries for such bodies, and funeral facilities; because expecting that the general public will come out itself to do all these tasks will be a foolish thought, as Novel Coronavirus being a highly infectious disease and high fear of being infected is keeping most of the people away from doing such social service. The petitioner further submitted that this facility will be effective in sharing the sufferings of all such people, who are helpless and waiting for the respectful farewell of their loved ones; and to approach the court by every such person with a similar petition to get the similar directions from this Court is not logical, hence this petition is filed in the public interest.
