We want “real hard facts” and not just “information that would make the court happy”: Gujarat High Court

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday said it wants “real hard facts” and not just “information that would make the court happy” while seeking clarification on the number of testing machines furnished by the state in an affidavit submitted by the latter. While hearing a suo-motu PIL on the Covid situation in the state, the court said the arbitrary behaviour of the civic bodies in handling the pandemic will not be tolerated.

The court also sought to know why the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is lagging in terms of updating the data on the availability of beds across hospitals on a real-time basis despite three orders in this regard while other smaller corporations like Surat, Jamnagar, Rajkot have made such arrangements.

“Orders passed by the court are being totally ignored…This is a feeling that we are getting,” Gujarat Chief Justice Vikram Nath said.


While seeking clarification on the number of RT-PCR machines in the state, the court said that the information furnished by the state has been filed in an affidavit under oath and that RT-PCR machines are countable and there cannot be any difference in the numbers.

The court also sought to know why the testing numbers in the state has gone down, to which Advocate General Kamal Trivedi replied that this is a dynamic situation.

Questioning the different policies followed by the state government for civil hospitals and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporations with regard to ambulances, the court asked, “you will accept that the state has been failing in keeping a proper supervision and control over the corporation?”

The court also sought to know details of the distribution process of Remdesivir injection across the state and asked the state to file an affidavit with a chart detailing the demand and supply of the injection.