CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Thursday ordered the state to ensure that all instructions, government orders and other notifications pertaining to COVID-19 be uploaded on the government's website and the stop corona website (https://stopcorona.tn.gov.in) in chronological order.
The first bench comprising the Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy passed the directions on a plea moved by an advocate Ramkumar Adityan of Madurai.
According to the petitioner, besides the COVID-19-related government orders, the orders pertaining to other issues and departments and state laws and rules are also not properly uploaded on the website. He also sought the court to direct the authorities to upload the COVID-19 details, notifications, orders, guidelines and government orders properly and regularly in both official languages - Tamil and English.
In response, Advocate General R Shunmughasundaram submitted that all orders were uploaded promptly. However, he said recently, after a few of the staff in the department tested positive for COVID-19, there was a delay and also the government was working only with 40 percent of staff. He said the site was updated till May 18.
The court recorded the submissions and emphasised that all future notifications and government orders be published in chronological order online and made available at the click of a button. With these directions, the court disposed of the plea.