Gujarat High Court Bench Which Pulled Up State Govt Over Mismanagement Of COVID-19 Crisis Changed

The Gujarat high court bench which pulled up the state government over the poor conditions at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital calling them "as good as a dungeon, may be even worse" was changed on Friday.

The change in the judges' bench comes abruptly when it is due to hear the public interest litigation (PIL) on issues pertaining to COVID-19, high mortality rate at the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital and the issues of migrant labourers.

The PIL was being heard by a division bench headed by Justice Pardiwala, with Justice Ilesh Vora, since May 11. Before that, it was taken up seven times by the Chief Justice, since March 13.

On Thursday, a notification released the high court registrar said that the PIL and other COVID-19 related cases would be heard through videoconferencing by the bench headed by the Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Vikram Nath himself, with Justice Pardiwala as the junior judge in the bench.

Last week, the earlier bench, in a 143-page order had lashed out at the state's health minister claiming that he "does not seem to be aware of what's going on". The court also asked if the state government was aware "of the hard fact that the patients at the hospital are dying because of lack of adequate number of ventilators".

In an order dated March 22, Justice Pardiwala's bench had criticised senior IAS officers, deputy chief minister Nitin Patel and the state government if it was "artificially" controlling the number of cases by gate-keeping testing in private laboratories.

The court had also directed the state government to provide high-quality N-95 masks, sanitisers, sterile and non-sterile gloves, personal protective equipment (PPE) kits, high-flow oxygen masks, and ventilators to all COVID-19 facilities and health workers.

Gujarat has been under the scanner for its gross management of the COVID-19 virus and reports of medical negligence from the Ahmedabad Civil Hospital which contributed to 62% of the total deaths in the state.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Gujarat rose to 15,572 on Thursday while the death toll jumped to 960.