The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a PIL seeking directions to the government to provide adequate medical assistance to the general public to deal with swine flu.
A bench headed by Chief Justice A P Shah pulled up the petitioner for seeking court's interference in this regard and said, "Government knows how to do its job and is doing its job."
"The Central government and the state governments are alert and the court cannot take charge of the problem," the bench also comprising Justice Manmohan observed while dismissing the PIL saying that it has been filed for publicity.
"The court can interfere only when the state machinery has failed. This is not the only country which is facing the problem and there is no country in which the court has taken charge of solving the problem," the bench said, while giving a warning to the petitioner not to file such PILs for publicity.
The petition was filed yesterday by one Anjana Jain, a Delhi resident, through counsel Sugriv Dubey seeking directions to the government to counter the threat of swine flu by providing adequate medical assistance to the people.
In its petition, Jain had alleged that the hospitals operating under the Centre and NCT government do not have sufficient number of physicians and nurses besides laboratory technicians.
According to the petitioner, due to inadequate equipment in the testing labs the medical staff were at high risk as they were not fully protected while dealing with the patients.
The petitioner had also said that the government has failed to take measures at the IG International Airport and as a result, taxi and auto drivers were vulnerable to the disease.
