JOIN USHC dismisses plea for door to door COVID-19 testing in Mumbai
The Bombay High Court on Tuesday dismissed a public interest litigation seeking door to door testing to screen all residents in the city for COVID-19.
A bench of Chief justice Dipankar Datta and Justice AA Sayed dismissed the plea holding that there weren't any existing WHO guidelines or advisories from the Indian Council for Medical Research that mandated such door to door screening tests.
The plea filed by activist Anil Galgali had sought that owing to the rising number of COVID cases in Mumbai, the authorities follow the model of doorstep screenings which was implemented in Bhilwara in Rajasthan to successfully check the spread of the pandemic.
The HC said the plea did not specify if there existed any similarities between Mumbai and Bhilwara and why or how the same technique could work for both cities.
"The plea does not even refer to any feature in Bhilwara that is identical or has close resemblance with Mumbai. Having regard to the testing times arising out of the pandemic, resources may be scarce for such door to door testing," the bench said.
"Even otherwise, no guidelines and/or advisory of the World Health Organisation or the Indian Council of Medical Research have been brought to our notice, which requires the official respondents to carry out door to door testing of the residents," it said while dismissing the plea.