The Patna High Court pulled up Bihar Government for its reluctance to reveal the number of COVID deaths in the state during the last one year. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and Justice S. Kumar ordered the State Government to upload the number of deaths and births daily to its portal under the Central Government’s flagship programme Digital India and National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP), 2012.
The bench observed that the government is under obligation to provide information about the number of deaths due to whatever reasons on its digital platform with direction to the figures regularly as per law.
The bench questioned as to why is the government reluctant when there is mandate of publishing statistical report as per Bihar Registration of Births and Death Rules, 1999 and why it cannot do so in a digital form.
The court also ordered that the elected representatives are under obligation to disclose the number of deaths in their constituencies within 24 hours. It also directed the government to sensitize public, especially in rural areas of constitutional and statutory right of uploading and obtaining information and convening forthwith meeting for compliance of all orders.
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