High Court: Don't use Court Orders to Politicise Covid

On Sunday, the High Court of Gujarat said that had it not been for the State Govt’s actions all would have been dead by now. Hence, Court Orders, in which it lambasted the Govt for inadequacies in its response to Covid-19 pandemic, shouldn't be made basis to criticise the Govt & politicise Covid-19 issue.

On Sunday, in an order the bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath & Justice J B Pardiwala said, “We request one & all to be very careful from now onward before commenting or entering into any debate with regard to court orders that are being passed from time to time in public interest. Our message is loud & clear. We need not further elaborate on this issue.”

In line with what the Solicitor General submitted before the Supreme Court earlier this week on the migrants’ crisis, the bench further said, “All those who cannot extend their helping hand in these difficult times & do anything good for the people at large, have no right to criticise the functioning of the state government. If the state government would not have been doing anything, as alleged, then probably, by now, we all would have been dead.”

Ending public agony over Govt control on Covid-19 testing which is alleged to be causing either delays or denial in diagnosis & treatment, the HC said private hospitals will not need to get approval for Covid testing before surgery. Significantly, it also put a deadline of 24 hours for government to grant approval for Covid test to laboratories. 

The High Court also warned the principal health secretary of action if any patient is refused admission by Civil Hospital.

For past one month, the High Court has posed various questions & made adverse observations about management of healthcare facilities in Gujarat & state government’s response to the plight of migrant workers & the poor.

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