Those criticising judiciary exhibit deliberate indifference and ignorance: SG Tushar Mehta defends Courts' functioning amid COVID-19

Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta today defending the functioning of the Indian Judiciary amid the COVID-19 pandemic, opining that those who are criticising the courts on this count are exhibiting their "ignorance to what is happening in the country.".Speaking during a virtual interaction with former and current Additional Solicitors General of India at the Supreme Court hosted by the Adhivakta Parishad, Mehta said, ."We have critics who criticise everything… but one of the unwarranted criticism is against the judiciary…. The Courts in the country have not shut even for a day. The Supreme Court has worked on a daily basis ... each and every day our system of dispensation of justice was accessible to each and every citizen and was dealing with petitions which could have been avoided. May petitions were such that the judges could have imposed costs but they refrained from doing, considering the circumstances.".Mehta went on to add, ."To criticise the judicial system would be showing, not only a deliberate indifference, but would be exhibiting our ignorance to what is happening in the country."SG Tushar Mehta.He opined that right from the trial court to the Supreme Court, the judiciary in India has been functioning on a daily basis and given access to justice for everyone in the country..Mehta also asserted that the Narendra Modi-led Government had handled the pandemic situation methodically and scientifically.."You will not be able to identify and pinpoint one particular area where the govt did not touch upon and pre-warn those who were supposed to manage the situation. Every Ministry has guidelines in place", Mehta said..He added, ."It is impossible to envisage a situation but for the responsive and responsible leadership of our honourable prime minister, I don't think we could have passed through this international crisis with the minimal damage that was unavoidable. It is a shivering idea to even imagine what would have happened under any other leadership.".He emphasised these are not political statements, stating he is making such comments as a citizen and a lawyer "who has seen the government working, who has seen and read each and every step taken by the government most methodically and scientifically.".During his talk, he also agreed with opinions expressed by the other speakers that the virtual courts cannot substitute the physical courts. ."Nothing virtual can ever be a substitute of real…But there can be a system where we can replace the original system of physical hearing without completely dispensing with the virtual hearing", Mehta said..He went on to make observations on how the virtual functioning of the courts help to reduce geographical barriers to court access. As far as the Supreme Court is concerned, he remarked that the present system creates amazing opportunities for those in remote areas or those who do not reside in Delhi..Before concluding his remarks, SG Mehta also sounded a note of appreciation of Attorney General KK Venugopal for his guidance to the law officers..“For AG KKV, age is merely a number… Whenever we requested him ‘sir, this requires your appearance and none else’, he has come, prepared, argued to the extent that he has exposed himself to meeting the officers - because some matters require personal interaction. It is really amazing.. you have to learn a lot from him. But for his guidance, we as a team of law officers, we could not have passed through this phase in the courts", Mehta said..On a parting note, Mehta remarked that the COVID-19-crisis is a phase that will pass. He urged lawyers to not lose hope, adding,."If a lawyer of any country becomes weak, the country becomes weak. We are the pillars of strength in any democratic country and we cannot lose faith in the system or faith in the destiny because there s a temporary pause button used by the Almighty.".The Additional Solicitors General who spoke during the discussion are Vikramjit Banerjee, Aman Lekhi, Madhavi Divan, KM Nataraj, Sanjay Jain, Balbir Singh, SV Raju, RS Suri, N Venkataraman, Jayant K Sud, Aishwarya Bhati, Pinky Anand (former ASG) and ANS Nadkarni (former ASG) .Nachiketa Joshi of the Adhivakta Parishad moderated the discussion.