ILNS: The Delhi Judicial Service Association has moved the Delhi High Court seeking directions to establish Covid care centers with full medical facilities such as beds, oxygen, and medicines within the judicial complex in a suitable place provide by the applicant association in every district court in Delhi.
The Association has filed its impleadment application in a similar case before the High Court wherein the High Court had asked the District & Sessions Judge of each district to coordinate with the respective District Magistrate to address the medical concerns of judicial officers and their families suffering from Covid-19.
In its petition filed through president Rajesh Malik, the Delhi Judicial Service Association has also asked for directions to make necessary arrangements for reimbursement of expenses incurred in hospitals other than empanelled hospitals in case of emergency or in case of any specialized treatment provided in hospitals other than empanelled hospitals.
The Association also sought directions to create a uniform policy for compassionate appointment for relatives of deceased judicial officers, who have died due to Covid-19.
The Association submitted that it is an association representing the interests of the judicial officers of Delhi. The Association has been set up to maintain an efficient and independent judiciary in Delhi and also to strengthen the rule of law by suggesting procedural, substantive and institutional reforms to that end. The members of the applicant Association are directly affected by the outcome of the present Writ Petition and as such the Applicant Association is a both a proper and necessary party to the present Writ Petition.
The Association has filed this present application in the petition filed by Advocate Shobha Gupta seeking directions to treat judicial officers as frontline workers and approve private/government Covid hospitals near the respective court-residential complexes in Delhi, for the treatment of judicial officers and their families who are having serious Covid-19 related ailments.
On April 29, the Delhi High Court had allowed the petition filed by Advocate Shobha Gupta, which was argued by Senior Advocate Sanjoy Ghose before the bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli. The Delhi HC had asked the District & Sessions Judge of each district to coordinate with the respective District Magistrate to address the medical concerns of judicial officers and their families suffering from Covid-19.
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Ghose had submitted before the bench that judges would “become martyrs to Covid-19”. He highlighted that over 60 judicial officers had already been infected with the virus and that some were even made to run from pillar to post to secure admission in hospitals. He further submitted that, “The judicial officers would not come before the Court but as the Bar, we are concerned.”