Court cannot direct Govt to research on COVID drug: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a petition which claimed that a particular drug has COVID curing properties and directions should, therefore, be issued to the State government to research on the drug..A Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice NS Sanjay Gowda opined that the such a prayer is outside the scope of a writ court and it is form the experts to decide on such issues. “Writ Court cannot issue a writ of mandamus directing the State government and others to conduct research on a particular drug. Therefore, no relief can be granted and same accordingly rejected,” the Court said.It is up to the experts to decide what treatment is the best to treat COVID-19, the Court added.The Court also raised eyebrows on the credibility of the petitioner.“The petitioner claims to be in the area of freelance medical research, however, he has not placed on record achievement made by him by doing research.”The petition was moved by Koladiya Kirit, who was represented by Advocate Anath Kumar C.."Court not an expert body to examine technical issues:" Calcutta High Court dismisses plea to change gap between two Covishield doses.On a related note, the Calcutta High Court on Monday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation seeking reduction or increase in the time gap between the two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield (Samir Das vs. UOI)..A Bench of Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Justice Arijit Banerjee observed that the Court is not an expert body equipped to deal with technical issues..“We are afraid that this Court is not an expert body to examine all the highly technical issues in medical terms that too with reference to Covid-19 Pandemic, the virus which is regularly changing its behaviour also,” the Court noted in its order.