Mumbai: While appreciating Maharashtra government’s efforts in tackling the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Bombay High Court has said that we must still not let our guards down as the threat still persists.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and justice MS Karnik on Monday remarked that the state of Maharashtra was one of the pioneers in successfully tackling the crisis that ensued because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
The HC’s observation came while it disposed off a bunch of public interest litigations which were filed last year seeking several directions to the state government for tackling the second wave of pandemic early this year. The PILs sought relief from disbursement of resources, availability of medication, vaccination, oxygen, etc to rectification of details on Cowin app.
The petitioners themselves sought disposal of the PILs as list of the prayers sought by them were taken care of.
Chief Justice said: “Let us forget about the dark days. But we must not let our guards down. We hope the new year brings in a new beginning and we never see a repeat of April 2021.”
Expressing satisfaction that the courts in Maharashtra had started functioning in physical mode as against various other states in the country, the CJ said: “We have no hesitation in saying that Maharashtra was one of the pioneers in tackling covid. We are told that several courts in some states are still not open (for physical hearings). Our collective efforts have succeeded but, we don't want a repeat.”
The court urged the central and the state government to continue prioritising providing of anti-Covid vaccines and requisite medical aid for senior citizens and those with disabilities, co-morbidity etc., to ensure that citizens remained safe.
“In 2020, we knew nothing of Covid but in April this year, during the second wave, we did. Yet, we let our guards down and witnessed a difficult time,” said CJ.
