PATNA: The Patna high court on Saturday asked the state government to file a reply, revealing the sources from which it confirmed additional Covid deaths before increasing the number by around 4,000 to take it to 9,375.
The division bench of Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S Kumar, however, did not specify any time for the state government to file the reply.
On Friday, the bench had expressed serious concern over massive jump in Covid toll in the state following a scrutiny carried out on high court’s direction.
The bench was hearing the batch of PILs filed by Shivani Kaushik, Rohit Kumar and Gaurav Kumar Singh, which were filed earlier this year on the grim pandemic situation in the state.
The court directed the state government to inform it whether death certificates and other documents were assessed to confirm additional Covid casualties.
Advocate general Lalit Kishore, who appeared for the state government, submitted that private hospitals had not updated Covid deaths properly.
Kishore had earlier also submitted that civil surgeons and panchayat secretaries had not provided death figures properly.
He had also assured the court that action would be taken against the erring officials.
The high court has once again asked the state government to try and maintain a separate portal for displaying and uploading birth and death data.
Centre’s additional solicitor general K N Singh submitted that separate data is being maintained by several states as per their laws.
However, Kishore submitted that there had been no complaint against the existing system prevalent in the state, which is controlled by the Registrar General of India.
Kishore also submitted that maintaining two separate portals and giving access to the people to people to upload data can result in discrepancies.
However, the high court was of the view that people should have access to such a portal in this digital era when everyone talks about transparency.
The court sought to know from development commissioner Amir Subhani, who was also virtually present before the bench, the provisions in law on maintaining birth and death records by central and state governments.
Subhani informed the court that these aspects are governed by Centre’s The Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969, along with rules and regulations formed by the state government in 1999 which has provision for maintaining a separate portal for such purpose.
Subhani also sought permission from the court to consult the AG before giving a proper reply on the matter.