The court docket additionally requested the state authorities to sensitise the folks, notably in rural areas.
Patna:
The Patna High Court on Friday noticed that the Bihar authorities’s reluctance to place the state’s COVID-19 demise rely within the public area is uncalled for.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar made the remark whereas listening to a PIL filed by Shivani Kaushik and others over Covid administration.
“For whatever reasons, the state government is most reluctant to put the COVID-19 death count in the public domain.”
“In our considered view, the resistance is uncalled for, for such action is neither protected by any law nor is in consonance with settled principles of good governance,” the court docket mentioned.
It mentioned that transparency is the hallmark of fine governance, extra so in at the moment’s period when each the Centre and the state are dedicated to creating Digital India and National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012 successful.
“As simple as it can be, the issue is whether more than 10 crore people of Bihar have the right to know, on a digital platform, the number of deaths that occurred in the state during COVID-19 and whether the government has a corresponding duty to disclose either voluntarily or as mandated by law,” the court docket mentioned.
Bihar had earlier this month revised its demise rely from 5,424 to 9,375 by including 3,951 unreported fatalities.
The court docket additionally requested the state authorities to sensitise the folks, notably in rural areas, about their proper to acquire data on-line.
