Pandemic and community’s sense of justice through suo motu in India

Abstract

ABSTRACT An ideal citizen centric society wedded to the democratic governance always keeps its laws in motion to build an egalitarian and just order. Aesthetic virtue of law lies in the realisation of justice and the creation of an egalitarian order. Against this backdrop, the present paper aims to examine the approach of the Supreme Court of India (SCI) towards COVID-19 Pandemic through suo motu proceedings from various perspectives of jurisprudence and constitutionalism. The government claimed to have strived intensively with full vigour but the response due tolack of preparedness and intense gravity of the catastrophe, the efforts of the government appeared negligible. It warranted prompt revisit of priorities which compelled the SCI to intervene and evaluate the legitimacy of the executive action. Furthermore, it impelled to examine the role of the SCI in responding to the community’s sense of justice and humanising justice. The paper presents the solution to the paradox generated out of the inherent friction between constitutional authority of judicial review and resistance of judicial review of executive actions by a populist government. The scope of the discussion has primarily been confined to Orders of the SCI in suo motu hearings and examined accordingly.