Telangana High Court: A Division Bench of Raghvendra Singh Chauhan, CJ and B. Vijaysen Reddy, J., directs the State to publish vital information about COVID-19 related data to the public at large so that people are aware about the situation and take required precautions for controlling the pandemic.
What has been sought in the present petition?
Direction to respondents on the following :
- State of Telangana’s action in not taking appropriate measures to make all pandemic related data available to the public at large in a comprehensible manner as breach of its Constitutional duties and violative of fundamental rights of the citizens.
- Directing the State of Telangana to have a dedicated web portal updated on a daily basis containing the above-stated information.
Media Bulletin on COVID-19 information
Initially when the virus was spreading, a Media bulletin on daily basis was issued by the State Government of Telangana which eventually when the COVID-19 cases started to rise in a steady manner, was halted.
According to the petitioner, until and unless the relevant data is collected and publicised, the extent of the disease spreading through the population would be unknown.
Since the relevant data is not being publicized, people at large will be of the opinion that the pandemic is no longer a serious illness, and that they are safe to venture out.
The cases in the State of Telangana are on a rise , since the testing is not being done on a large extent and relevant data is also not being revealed, phenomenal number of persons being detected may just be the tip of the iceberg.
Court directs the State not only to publish the vital data on the internet, but also published on the front pages of all the Newspapers in the Print Media.
People should be made aware of the fact that the pandemic is only increasing day in and day out.
In the above regard, Advocate General, B.S. Prasad sought time to submit his report with regard to the steps being taken by the Government.
Matter to be listed on 18-06-2020. [Amrita Aryendra v. State of Telangana, WP(PIL) No. 111 of 2020, decided on 08-06-2020]