Delhi HC summons AAP govt over piling of COVID-19 dead bodies at LNJP hospital

A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal slammed the AAP government over the piling up of dead bodies at LNJP hospital in Delhi. The court asked the government to submit a detailed report on June 2.

New Delhi:The Delhi High Court on Friday asked Delhi government and the three municipal corporations to file a detailed status report on the piling up of dead bodies at several mortuaries and listed the matter for further hearing on June 2.

Anguished by lack of facilities to cremate those who died due to COVID-19 and the bodies piling up in the mortuaries, the high court on Thursday had initiated on its own a PIL to deal with the issue, saying if this was the correct situation then it was "highly dissatisfactory and violative of the rights of the dead".

According to the news reports, inside the COVID-19 mortuary of Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital in Delhi, there are 108 bodies of which 28 are piled on the floor on top of each other as there are only 80 storage racks, the court said on Friday.

Earlier on Thursday, the Delhi government told the court that 28 such bodies were cremated on Thursday and the last rites of the remaining 35 will be performed by Saturday.

During the Friday's hearing, Delhi government additional standing counsel Sanjoy Ghose informed the court that urgent steps were taken to remedy the situation, including that LNJP Hospital being authorised to divert bodies to crematoriums at Panchkuian and Punjab Bagh, as opposed to only Nigambodh Ghat.

(With inputs from PTI)