HC reconstitutes bench hearing Covid pleas

Bench of J B Pardiwala and I J Vora that heard suo motu petition and other pleas on Covid-19 pandemic has been restructured. The bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Pardiwala will now hear the petitions

The Gujarat High Court bench of J B Pardiwala and I J Vora that was hearing suo motu petition and other pleas on Covid-19 pandemic has been reconstituted. Now, as per the high court notification issued on Thursday, Justice Pardiwala will be part of the bench headed by Chief Justice Vikram Nath, while Justice I J Vora will be part of a bench with Justice R M Chhaya.

The suo moto petition on Covid was initiated by CJ Vikram Nath. Now, he is part of the bench again. Earlier the bench of CJ Vikram Nath and Justice AJ Shastri were hearing pleas relating to Covid-19.

The division bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and I J Vora has been hearing the urgent cases including PILs relating to Covid-19 since May 11. They have passed strictures against the State government for the pathetic conditions at the Civil Hospital.

"It is very distressing and painful to note that the condition prevailing, as on date, in the Civil Hospital, is pathetic," the bench had said, adding, "Civil Hospital is meant to treat patients. However, it appears that as on date, it is as good as a dungeon. May be even worse than a dungeon. Unfortunately, the poor and helpless patients have no option."

The bench had also questioned as to how many times the health minister and principal health secretary had visited the hospital.

Later on May 25, the bench had directed the State government to set up a committee of independent doctors to probe the conditions at the hospital.

The judges also said that they would like to make a surprise visit to the hospital. "The superintendent of Civil Hospital and other authorities of the Health department shall keep themselves ready to find our presence one fine morning on a given day in the hospital. This would put an end to all the controversies with regard to the functioning of the Civil Hospital," Justice Pardiwala had said.

Earlier, the suo motu petition and other applications raising issues of the failure of the State government to handle the Covid outbreak and difficulties faced by the public and migrants were heard by the bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice A J Shashtri.

As many as 13 orders were issued in the suo motu petition since March 13, of these four were issued by the bench of Justices Pardiwala and Vora.