The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to ensure that all government orders and notifications related to COVID-19 are uploaded on its official website https://www.tn.gov.in as well as the special website https://stopcorona.tn.gov.in in a chronological order. The court ordered that the two websites should also be updated regularly with all future government orders and notifications related to the pandemic.
Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy observed that government directives and notifications connected to COVID-19 must be available to the citizens at the touch of a key since those “orders and notifications affect private citizens and may be necessary for various purposes.” The orders were passed while disposing of a public interest litigation petition filed by advocate B. Ramkumar Adityan on Thoothukudi.
The lawyer had claimed that most of the G.O.s and notifications were not available on the government websites and that people had no choice but to rely upon unauthenticated information circulated on the social media.
He pointed out that during difficult times such as a pandemic, it was essential that every citizen was able to access all government orders, circulars and notifications regarding COVID-19 easily from a reliable access point.
On the other hand, Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram told the court that most of the government orders had been uploaded on the government website and that a few might have got missed since most of the departments were now working with skeletal staff due to various reasons, such as the stringent lockdown restrictions and the staff members themselves having tested positive for COVID-19.
