KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 1

Advocates Lokendra Oli and Keshar Jung KC filed a contempt of court case today against Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and Minister of Health and Population Bhanu Bhakta Dhakal for allegedly disobeying the Supreme Court’s decision that had asked the government to test and treat COVID-19 patients free of cost.

The petitioners stated in their writ petition that the Supreme Court had, in response to a writ petition filed by them earlier, ordered the government to provide all preventive, diagnostic, therapeutic and rehabilitative services related to COVID-19 free of cost.

The verdict was delivered by a division bench of justices Ananda Mohan Bhattarai and Tanka Bahadur Moktan in response to the writ petition filed by advocates Oli and KC.

They have argued that as per Public Health Service Act, people were entitled to free treatment for infectious diseases and since COVID-19 was an infectious disease, people infected with the disease were entitled to free treatment.

Writ petitioners have said that despite the SC order, the government had started charging people for COVID-19 test and treatment. The government has said it will bear the cost of only those who are poor, helpless, single women, differently-abled citizens, senior citizens, frontline health workers, sanitation staffers and security personnel.

The petitioners said the government had decided to charge people for test and treatment on October 5, but it kept the decision under wraps to take advantage of the closure of the court so that it could charge people when its decisions could not be challenged in the court. They said disobeying a court order was an inexcusable crime in a country where there is rule of law. They also said the government decision to seek affidavit from those who want to receive free treatment was an attempt to hurt the self-respect of citizens.

The government may face shortage of resources, but it has not made any preparation to meet this challenge, the petitioners stated. They said there was no attempt by the government to enforce pay cuts for government employees and VIPs to manage resources for COVID-19 test and treatment. The petitioners have urged the court to impose one-year jail term and Rs 10,000 fine on the defendants for defying the court order.

In the earlier case filed by the petitioners, the court had observed that COVID-19 was an infectious disease and as per the legal provisions, everybody had the right to get free diagnosis and treatment for the disease. It had ordered that even those who were getting themselves tested as a requirement for visa should not be charged. “Nobody opts to undergo COVID-19 test out of desire.

They do so out of compulsion,” the court had observed.

It said the government’s decision not to test asymptomatic people was unconstitutional and illegal, as asymptomatic people could also transmit the disease to healthy people.

Although writ petitioner Oli told THT that he had registered the writ petition at the SC and he had the receipt of the same, Communication Expert of the SC Kishor Paudel said the SC had not registered the petition yet as they had not completed all the procedures.