Coronavirus | Gujarat High Court to hear suo motu PIL on COVID-19 on April 12

The court cites media reports of the COVID crisis in hospitals and lists matter for urgent hearing on Monday morning

Relatives and family members lift a coffin for burial of a person, who died due to the coronavirus disease, at a graveyard in Ahmedabad, Sunday, April 11, 2021.

Citing media reports of shortage of beds, oxygen supply, testing facilities and medicines amid the pandemic and rising cases and deaths, the Gujarat High Court late on Sunday took suo motu cognisance of the worsening COVID-19 situation and listed the matter for urgent hearing on Monday morning.

Chief Justice Vikram Nath in his oral order said, “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 remdesivir, etc.”

“Had it been stray news here and there, I could have ignored it but the volume of reports in the leading newspapers having nation wide circulation cannot be ignored. It is the time that the Court must intervene,” he noted.

The Chief Justice has directed the court registry to register a new suo motu PIL petition and list it before the bench of himself and Justice B.D. Karia.

The new PIL has been registered under the tittle “In Re: Uncontrolled Upsurge and Serious Management Issues in COVID Control.”

The HC had earlier suggested that the government impose a lockdown to break the chain of transmission as the State was witnessing a surge in cases and deaths.

On Sunday, the State officially recorded 54 deaths and 5,469 cases due COVID-19.