Mahima
The Gujarat High Court has taken suo moto cognizance of the on going surge in Covid-19 cases along with shortage of beds, medical infrastructures and testing facilities.
Chief Justice Vikram Nath stated, “The newspapers, news channels are flooded with the harrowing tales, unfortunate and unimaginable difficulties, unmanageable conditions of the infrastructure, the shortfall and the deficit of not only testing, availability of beds, ICU, but also supply of Oxygen and the basic medicines like Ramdesivir, etc”.
The Court passed an order recognising that the State is heading towards a health emergency and registered the case titled, “In Re: Uncontrolled Upsurge and Serious Management Issues in COVID Control”.
The Chief Justice also added that court’s intervention became necessary after the perusal of alarming reports in this context which clearly indicate State’s transgression into a health emergency.
The Chief Justice constituted a bench of himself and Justice Bhargav D Karia and scheduled a priority hearing with the senior counsel, Advocate General Kamal Trivedi, government pleader Manisha Shah and Additional Solicitor General of India, Devyang Vyas.
The court also passed directions on whom to add as parties to the fresh PIL.
These include State of Gujarat through its Chief Secretary Anil Mukim, Principal Secretary (Health) Jayanti Ravi, Union of India through Secretary of Department of Home, Government of India, Ajay Bhalla and Secretary of Department of Health, Government of India, Rajesh Bhushan.
