More Warriors Want Protection

Following an application from the Delhi Judicial Services Association, the Delhi High Court has asked the state to declare judicial authorities as frontline workers as they are at risk

- Shivam Sharma

ON May 19, the Delhi High Court asked the state government to consider declaring judicial officers working in lower courts as Corona warriors/activists in the frontline of the battle against the epidemic. The Court said that even in this epidemic, judicial authorities were making the justice system easier for people.

A division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh was hearing an application of the Delhi Judicial Services Association. The Association said that even though meetings were held between district judges and magistrates with regard to Covid centres and medical concerns of judicial officers and their families, little progress had been made. The bench observed that judicial officers were working and exposing themselves to the risk the way armed forces and the police were doing.

“We have lost three judicial officers already. Look at the number of judicial officers and their families being infected, it’s staggering. Because of the nature of their job, they have to expose themselves so we need to protect them,” said the bench. It said that judicial officers were performing an important duty and should be given preference like other frontline workers like doctors and government officers. Many judges have to go to court physically or to jails even during the pandemic as they were dealing with remand cases.

The Court further said a different protocol applies to the Supreme Court and High Court judiciary, but the same cannot be said about district judiciary. It added that three judicial officers had already succumbed to Covid-19 in Delhi, and the number of those who had suffered was staggering. It is important from the point of view of their mental space that they are protected, said the bench.