Chennai: The Supreme Court said India resiliently fought back the unprecedented situation created by the Covid-19 pandemic and the economy as also life of the common man is on the path towards normalcy in a shorter period of time than expected.
Citing disaster management laws, the top court noted that the country already had in place legal and administrative instruments to empower the State to contain and manage the several crisis that would arise from the pandemic.
It said the pandemic has left its footprints for all to learn from the unprecedented situation which everyone has come across. It suddenly changed the lifestyle of every individual in the society, the way of working, and from social security to human rights, from macro economy to household income, the court said.
The pandemic has made everyone stronger to face, “if any difficult situation arises in future and this is what by experience we learn,” it said.
These observations were made by a bench of Justices AM Khanwilkar, Indu Malhotra and Ajay Rastogi while dismissing a plea seeking an extra attempt in UPSC civil services to those candidates who have exhausted their last chance in 2020 preliminary examination or have got age barred from appearing in future tests amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Different countries introduced various policies in meeting out the widespread socioeconomic implications but the COVID-19 pandemic has left its footprints for us to learn from the unprecedented situation, which everyone has come across and suddenly changed the lifestyle of every individual in the society, his way of working, from social security to individual human rights, from macro economy to household income and has made us more stronger to face, if any difficult situation arises in future and this is what by experience we learn,” it said.
The top court observed that there is no doubt that for India or for the rest of the world, Covid-19 has been a disaster of unprecedented proportions and the crisis of pandemic has provided the sternest test for disaster management response.
“Due to unprecedented spread of the virus, the world had gone into a virtual lockdown as several countries initiated strict screening of potential cases introduced in their territory. Disasters are testing times for the institutions and individuals, processes and procedures, and policies and their implementation mechanisms,” it said.