Goa: Fingers crossed as over 60 judges expected for March 27 event

The Maharashtra Covid surge to a record high Thursday has led to growing concern in sections of the Bombay High Court and officials in Goa ahead of the inauguration of the new High Court building here on March 27.

As per the plan, Chief Justice of India S A Bobde will inaugurate the building in Porvorim, North Goa, with five Supreme Court judges and 62 judges of the Bombay High Court and its Benches in Aurangabad, Nagpur, and the High Court of Bombay at Goa.

Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant are also expected to be present. Invites have been sent out by the Bombay High Court administration factoring in 500 guests.

“The High Court may have to review the situation,” said an official. “Everything has been planned keeping the entire Covid protocol in mind but given that we are more than a week away and cases are rising, we have our fingers crossed.”

In Goa, the case count is relatively low but there has been a steady uptick — 745 to 861 active cases in the past week.

Despite the surge in next-door Maharashtra since February 8, the Goa government had refrained from restricting tourist entry. On Wednesday, Sawant said: “We don’t want to have a janata curfew or other kind of ban at this time but we will increase testing on a large scale. We will impose fines on those found without masks in public places.”

On March 28, a full court meeting of the judges of the Bombay High Court and its benches will be held in the judges’ library in the new building. Arrangements will be made for judges returning to Maharashtra to undergo RT-PCR tests in Goa as the state has mandated a Covid-19 negative report for air passengers arriving from Goa, officials said.