SC pulls up Delhi health minister for saying officers not following order

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up Delhi’s Health Minister Satyendra Jain for maintaining that no officer was willing to take orders from the AAP government to check chikungunya and dengue deaths.

The court asked the minister to give names of those officers by Monday. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and U U Lalit took exception to the assertion made by Jain in an affidavit submitted to the court in his personal capacity.

“What kind of the statement is this? What is the evidence that no officer is willing to take responsibility? You can’t treat people of Delhi like this,” the bench told Delhi government’s counsel senior advocate Paras Kuhad.

“Tell us the names of those officers who are not obeying your orders,” the bench further asked. Kuhad, on his part, agreed to give the names, but sought permission to file it in a sealed cover.

“Why should you give it in a sealed envelope...you have made the statement in an open affidavit. You have to provide the names of those officers in an open affidavit,” the bench told the counsel.

The bench gave the minister time till Monday to file his additional affidavit. The court also rejected Kuhad's plea for time till Tuesday due to personal difficulty. “Tell your government to engage somebody else, we can't keep the matter pending for long,” the bench said.

The court’s direction came after senior advocate Ajeet Kumar Sinha, appearing for Delhi lieutenant governor cited the minister’s affidavit, saying they were abdicating their responsibility.

The court had earlier, on September 26, sought response from the Delhi government on a suo motu plea relating to the death of a 7-year-old boy in Delhi due to dengue after reportedly being denied treatment by five private hospitals and subsequent suicide by his parents last year. It had appointed senior advocate Colin Gonsalves as amicus curiae to assist the court. Over 2,600 chikungunya cases have been reported in Delhi till September 17, and the disease has caused 15 deaths so far.