Explaining why it could not find the missing person, the State said in its Special Leave Petition (SLP) before the apex court,
“…the tragic incident occurred in May 2021, during the peak of the second wave of the Covid-19 Pandemic, when hospitals and health care providers were overstretched, and health care and other essential services providers were working under great stress and danger to their own personal safety and health. It was under these extreme circumstances that the tragic lapse seems to have occurred at the TB Sapru Hospital, in which Mr. Ram Lal Yadav, who was last seen on his bed at 10 pm on 07.05.2021, was not found there at 530 am on 08.05.2021. In particular, it is a matter of record that C on the night in question, i.e. the intervening night of 7/8.05.2021, 3 Corona Patients had died at the hospital, due to which there was a huge uproar at the hospital.”
It was submitted that as soon as the authorities came to know that the person was missing, they took all possible and best efforts to trace his whereabouts. Apart from constituting two SITs, the State suspended negligent doctors and staff at the TB Sapru Hospital, from where the person went missing. In this context, it was argued,
“The Hon’ble High Court however, has failed to appreciate the aforesaid and has through repeated orders directed that the “corpus” be produced in Court – an order that it has now become clear, would be impossible for the State to implement. This impossibility of implementation has arisen, not on account of any lack of action by the State in searching for Mr. Ram Lal Yadav, but simply on account of the lack of any forthcoming information from any source, other than what has already been placed on record.”
On these grounds, the State prayed for the apex court to set aside the High Court order summoning its officials.
Source: Barandbench
