JOIN USCOVID-19: SC asks Centre to publicise prices on masks, hand sanitiser, soaps
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to publicise its notification fixing prices of masks, hand sanitiser and liquid soaps, essential to fight COVID-19 pandemic.
A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to ensure strict implementation of the orders issued by the government.
Mehta said the government was looking into the matter and would publish and publicise helpline numbers for the effective implementation of its notification- controlling the price of the masks and sanitisers.
Satyam Singh Rajput, founder of NGO 'Justice For Rights Foundation', and advocate Amit Kumar Sharma and LLB student Prateek Sharma had approached the court against the black marketing of sanitisers and mask.
The petitioners, for their part, contended that the right to life and personal liberty as enshrined under Article 21 of the Constitution, was "sacrosanct and it should not be made a part of a trade in hands of nefarious few".
They pointed out that the Department of Consumer Affairs, had on March 21, 2020, fixed the prices of two-ply masks at Rs 8 and three-ply at Rs 10 and that the sanitiser bottle of 200 ml at Rs 100. However, the petitioners claimed these items were sold at inflated prices.
The petitioners pointed out the Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers' Department of Pharmaceuticals through National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority passed an order on March 13 directing all the authorities to ensure sufficient availability of surgical masks, hand sanitisers and gloves at the printed MRP.
The WHO had on January 30 declared the COVID-19 firstly as “public-health emergency of international concern” and then on March 11 called it a pandemic, due to the ever-increasing number of cases and the deaths caused by the said infectious disease.
With this, the citizens were advised to take two important steps: one, to cover ones’ face and two, to wash hand regularly with soaps and use sanitisers.
In such a scenario of widespread infection and the growing number of cases, the petitioners said effective and precautionary steps were required to ensure availability of masks, hand sanitiser and soaps as "the life and the well-being of the citizens cannot be allowed to hang in balance".