"How Long Can We Tell People Your People That Their Case Is Not Important Amid COVID":Justice Gautam Patel

"How long can we tell people that their case is not important enough as it is not urgent to be heard amid COVID?", asked Bombay High Court Judge Justice GS Patel on Tuesday. 

Justice Patel was speaking at a panel discussion at the launch of Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy's Maharashtra State office and the release of its Briefing Book on Fifteen Suggested Legal Reforms for Maharashtra.

Justice Patel remarked that it has been extraordinarily frustrating over the past 1 year to "not be able to do anything which resembles our normal and usual workload". He stated that it has become a very serious issue when there are courts sitting for limited hours a day and listening to a limited class of matters, putting everybody else on hold- "There is something enormously tragic which is happening. Take a regular case of succession to an estate. There is no tearing urgency there, but how long does that estate be held up? There is a section of justice which is not being addressed because of the Covid situation!"

The judge inquired from a medical expert on the panel if they believed the country will ever achieve 0 COVID cases anywhere, if we will ever get rid of Covid completely.

"I can't keep putting people on hold, saying 'Sorry, your case is unimportant because it is not urgent'. This is something which we have not addressed- we need to set up an infrastructure to say, 'Here is the alternative, just get on with it!' We have to find and devise mechanisms to work around the pandemic!", he said.

He remarked that while the Supreme Court E-Committee is working extensively to standardise, simplify and make uniform forms, procedures and rules for digital usage, unless the redundant details are discarded, it will not be effective.

"Sometimes, we need information to prevent fraud, impersonation. But why do we want somebody's date of birth or electricity bill? This is an old, archaic requirement. The classic example is your liquor license- you are asked if you require liquor for medicine purposes. How relevant are these requirements? Are you seriously supposed to say you need liquor for the betterment of your health? You need to relook at some of this, make it more common-sensical", he said.

"Laws in the public health system need to give the administrator much more room to manoeuver and innovate quickly in a rapidly-changing scenario. Let us not over-regulate. Let us not wait for solutions to come from courts".