Petition moved in HC to declare judicial officers frontline COVID-19 workers

Advocate Shobha Gupta on Sunday moved Delhi High Court seeking direction to the Delhi Government to immediately declare Judicial Officers as frontline COVID workers and set up a mechanism for the treatment of judicial officers in Delhi infected with the coronavirus and other ailments.

In their petition, Advocates Gupta and Rajesh Sachdeva urged: "To direct the GNCT of Delhi to immediately declare Ld. Judicial Officers (DJS/DHJS) as frontline workers and provide them by Setting up a mechanism for the medical treatment of Judicial Officers in Delhi infected with the coronavirus and or serious related ailments."

The petitioner sought to direct the Government to earmark private and government hospitals near the respective Court residence complex in Delhi for the treatment of the Judicial Officers (DJS/DHJS). She also urged the court to convert dispensaries in the residential colonies of Judicial Officers and dispensaries near the Court Complexes to Covid Centers and to treat the judicial officers with severe symptoms and treat them as frontline workers.

In the public interest litigation filed by the lawyer, she said that during the pandemic, Judges and Magistrates ensured the maintenance of law and order and said that she is specifically concerned about the health and life of the Judicial officers in Delhi, who in order to maintain law and order and ensure speedy and effective delivery of justice, resumed physical hearings in Courts.

Due to the nature of work in courts, COVID protocol is not being followed and judicial officers are exposed immensely, she added. "Since March 24 till 20th April, a number of judges and their family members contracted the deadly virus and suffered from Covid. Almost in every District Court, Judicial Officers are Covid positive. Six judicial Officers from the Saket complex required urgent hospital admission. Despite efforts, four of them could not secure even a bed at the nearest Covid hospital Max Smart. Hospital being only a km away from their complex the officers and their families had to run pillar to post to somehow secure admission in hospitals located many kilometers away in the city," said the petition.

Unfortunately, one DHJS officer, Kovai Venugopal, succumbed to the disease because of late hospital admission, who survived with a widow and a 9-year-old daughter. The advocate also mentioned an FIR filed in Kanpur for denying treatment to a judge in a hospital in the petition.