NEW DELHI: Coming down hard on Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain, the Supreme Court imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 on him on Monday for failing to file an affidavit naming officials who he claimed did not cooperate with the AAP government in the fight against mosquito-borne diseases in the capital.
On Friday, Jain had alleged that non-cooperation of Delhi government officials had led to him personally filing an affidavit before a bench headed by Justice Madan B Lokur, which has taken suo motu notice of a case where the parents committed suicide after their son died of dengue.
The bench had told Jain on Friday that he had made serious allegations and must file an affidavit by Monday making public the names of non-cooperating officials. The counsel for Delhi government and Jain, senior advocate C U Singh, said the minister did not even get 24 hours to prepare the affidavit and sought time to file it.
But the bench of Justices Lokur and D Y Chandrachud was in no mood for excuses. “A minister does not need 24 hours to file an affidavit when people are dying. We had deliberately given a short time for filing the affidavit because of the extreme urgency in the matter. One, people are dying and the other, the minister had made serious allegations. You file the affidavit today itself but before that deposit Rs 25,000 with the legal aid services authority,” the bench said.
Jain’s counsel repeatedly requested the court to waive off the cost saying the affidavit was ready and would be filed the same day. However, he failed to convince the court. The bench posted the matter for Tuesday and said, “You make tall claims in the affidavit and when we ask for answers, you don’t file it on time. You could have filed the affidavit on Saturday.”
Solicitor general Ranjit Kumar, appearing for Delhi government’s chief secretary, told the bench that the health department has readied an affidavit in response to the minister’s previous affidavit alleging non-cooperation from officials.
The health department said Seem was in charge of Delhi Health Mission and was entrusted with additional charges of DGHS and health secretary. Seem had taken charge of DGHS in October last year and was piloting the AAP government’s ambitious ‘Mohalla Clinic’ project.