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The worsening condition due to the epidemic and rising hoarders : a look into Rishi v. State of Haryana and others

July 26, 2021

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This article is written by Rakchit Mishra from Birla Global University, Bhubaneshwar. This article completely deals with the problems faced due to the rise in the number of hoarders during the time of the epidemic.

Table of Contents

Introduction

After the first phase of the Covid-19, people from different cities started living a normal life after seeing that, the number of cases in many countries declined as stated by sources. The majority of the people getting affected were aged people. Its chances of affecting younger people were meagre, so people started visiting different places like markets, schools, coachings, parks, etc. They started living a normal life as if the pandemic was over. Even most people did not follow the steps or guidelines by the government to control the virus. Hence, as they started moving in larger numbers without taking precautions, covid cases started to increase. It also started affecting younger people rather than only affecting aged people.

In our country due to the lack of resources, it was unable to control the virus as there was a lack of many such instruments which are used to check whether a person is affected by such virus or not, also due to lack of ventilators, beds, quarantine centres. By the time of the first phase of covid 19, there was only the existence of normal symptoms such as fever, cough, etc, due to which it was presumed that one is suffering from Covid-19. So at that time though it was affecting many people, the majority of the people were saved from such a virus, but by the time it reached its second phase the condition in the country started becoming worse as compared to the first phase as a maximum number of people were affected.

There were lots of deaths in the second phase. Also in the second phase, there were more critical symptoms as it destroyed the lungs of many people due to which they had problems in breathing and even due to lack of oxygen, many of the people lost their families. Still, the most surprising thing was that many of the people were not getting places to burn the bodies of the people who lost their lives due to Covid 19 because such places were already packed with the maximum number of dead bodies and still our country is not having enough resources to control such things due to which the condition is getting worse day by day in our country including many other countries due to this epidemic.

Though it was seen that many other variants of Covid-19 were found in many different countries, still there were no such restrictions made for the passengers travelling from such countries to our country due to which many people travelled to our country who also spread such dangerous variant of Covid -19 and even some other disease also developed like black fungus, white fungus which is also dangerous as it is also affecting many people which now shows that there is a worse condition in our country due to the epidemic.

The rising hoarders amidst the epidemic

Hoarders mean the people who detain necessary items more than their requirement due to fear of losing their near and dear ones or hide such necessary things in a secret place for their benefit in case there is a lack of such products in the country. People sell those things at a higher price which are in high demand in our country. For example, if there is an existence of violence against some political parties in a particular state due to which most of the shops were burned. But a person named Mr. X who was a shopkeeper detained all of those necessary items in a secret place which was not known to anyone as he thought that those things which were detained by him was not available in any of the shops and also due to such disturbance in the state there were no such movements of vehicles due to which it was impossible to get such necessary items from any other states which lead to the shortage of such items in the state.

So after some time when the people urged to buy such things then he sold them at a higher price and the people were bound to buy such things which are required in their day to day life such as vegetables, groceries, etc. Further, the act which was done by Mr. X clearly shows that he hoarded those items. Under few circumstances, where out of necessity or due to any other apprehension stated by some sources people generally buy some of the products in advance then it will not be treated as hoarding items because they are buying the things for their families or their consumption.

So as it is seen that our country is facing the second phase of Covid-19, which is far more dangerous than the first phase because it has more wild symptoms and even majority of the people lost their relatives, friends, parents, etc, due to lack of resources and facilities in our country. So by observing the situation few people started hoarding some necessary items as they thought that they would earn maximum profits after selling such items because in case of emergency as such products were not available in the country then they will sell those products at a higher price to the persons who needed such products or medicines. To save their families, people were bound to buy those products. Even a few people out of fear are buying maximum quantities of the necessary things for their consumption because the government has declared lockdown in many states or has imposed certain restrictions in our country.

At the time of the second phase of Covid 19 in our country, it was observed that there is much need for oxygens for the patients because during that time the new variant of Covid 19 was destroying the lungs of the people due to which they were facing difficulties while breathing to save the lives of the people. So by seeing such things few sellers not only hoarded oxygen cylinders at some secret place but also accumulated other necessary things which were in high demand in this current situation of Covid 19 to save the lives of people of our country such as injections, medicines, etc, due to which there was lack of such resources in our country as such hoarders developed a state of mind that in the worse situation people will buy those things by paying them maximum prices and this is the reason why many of the people are losing their lives due to Covid-19 because as stated that there was a shortage of oxygen cylinders, injections, etc, in the hospitals.

Even poor people were not able to buy such things from the hoarders as they did not have enough money to buy. So due to all such reasons our country is not having enough quantities of such things which are in high demand in the present situation of this epidemic which further shows that the number of hoarders rose rapidly at the time of the pandemic.

A look into the case of Rishi v. State of Haryana and others

Facts of the case

In the case of Rishi v. State of Haryana and Others (1987), higher rates were taken by many of the private laboratories for CT scan, dealing with black fungus, RT-PCR TEST & HCRT test and there was a lack of oxygen cylinders and certain medicines as it was detained in a secret place by few people due to which the state was falling short of medicines. Further, it was asked to take strict actions against those hospitals who were not following instructions as prescribed by the government, rather they were charging higher amounts only to earn more money, and even the relatives were not able to know the status of their patients as they were not allowed to meet the patients. So for such problems the parties went to the court to meet the ends of justice.

Contentions of the parties

One of the parties named Mr. Gupta asked the court to take strict actions against the hospitals that are not following the guidelines and are selling the medicines at a higher price, which are in high demand in this particular situation of Covid 19, where people are losing their lives only because of lack of resources and facilities. He further requested an ICU control room to check whether the patients can communicate with their relatives or not. Advocate General also stated that government hospitals did not charge any fee for the CT scan; rather, they provided it for free. However, the private hospitals were charging the maximum amount of fees for tests related to Covid 19.

Findings of the court

After hearing both the parties the court concluded that the state should make explicit changes in the rates of the Covid 19 tests such as RT-PCR, CT scan, etc, so the court asked all the three states to keep unvarying rates for the RT-PCR test and RAT test by further stating that all the three states should fix such rates as was mentioned by the state of Punjab. Further, the court found that the rates reduced by some of the private diagnostics centres in Chandigarh were rational, so it requested the state of Punjab and Haryana to ask all other private diagnostic centres to keep uniform rates as the private diagnostic centres of Chandigarh kept it.

The court also said that the state government should ensure that ICU control rooms will check whether the relatives are allowed to meet their patients or not because the patient must meet their families so that they feel better. Even the relatives will be able to know about the health status of their patients. Lastly, the court said that if further private hospitals charge higher fees for those tests, then it will be enhanced to nodal committees. Further, it will decide whether actions will be taken or not for such misconduct.

Conclusion

In my view, necessary steps should be taken by the government to control this virus and other diseases as well so that the number of positive and death cases will be reduced and even the government needs to keep a check and should also take strict actions against all those hoarders as they are detaining many such necessary things which are needed to treat the people who are affected with Covid 19 due to which there is a shortage of such resources in the country.

The steps which were taken by the dealers were not correct, rather they should help the country in controlling the virus and even save the lives of all the people by providing them necessary things such as oxygen cylinders, medicines, etc to each of the states. Everyone should take precautions instead of panicking and buying more things in larger quantities for themselves. Though such things can help them, they will not help others as there will be a shortage of those things. Even hospitals of our country should not charge more amount of fees for any tests or treatment related to Covid 19 as due to Covid 19 some of the people lost their jobs, business, etc, and if they charge higher prices then the poor people will not be able to pay the fees due to which they might lose their family member, friends, etc, so it will be better if the hospitals of our country charge affordable fees from the people as this is not time to earn profits rather this is the time to save our country from such deadly virus.