‘Epidemic or any disaster can be best handled by executive’

NEW DELHI: Brushing aside criticism that the Supreme Court was blindly toeing the Union government line during the Covid-19 pandemic, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde on Monday said that during a crisis, the three organs of governance must work harmoniously and the executive should decide deployment of men, money and material.Rights activists had a tough time in getting the SC to entertain their public interest litigations on migrant workers’ plight and demand for payment of minimum wages to them.Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan earlier tweeted, “I have watched the Supreme Court since the Emergency. The kind of abject surrender to the government that we are seeing today was not seen even during the Emergency. Most judges have totally forgotten their oath to protect the Constitution and fundamental rights of people. Pathetic!”Bhushan followed it with another tweet on Monday, “Shocking facts! 96% of stranded migrant workers did not receive ration from the government; 90% didn’t receive wages; 70% had less than Rs 200 and a day’s ration left. Yet, the government tells Supreme Court that all migrant workers have been taken care of. And SC trusts government.”CJI Bobde, who headed a bench that initially dealt with the PIL filed by Harsh Mander seeking minimum wages to migrant workers, said, “ We had directed government to provide shelter, food and counselling to migrant workers stuck because of the lockdown and absence of transportation.“Epidemic or any disaster can be best handled by the executive. Undoubtedly, the executive can’t allow lives of citizens to be endangered. When that situation arises, the court will have jurisdiction to intervene. In all cases relating to situations arising from Covid-19, we asked the executive what steps are being taken to resolve the issues.”