Brijesh Trivedi, amicus curiae had opposed the state government’s proposal before the Gujarat High Court. He opposed stating that COVID-19 testing could be broadly categorized under the fundamental rights but was subjected to “reasonable restrictions.”

Advocate Trivedi said that state government have “no right to stop” anyone from getting tested for coronavirus at their own expense. He has opposed the state government’s submission that was authorized to impose “reasonable restrictions” on the fundamental right to life.

The Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA) has insisted for testing up to 40,000 samples a day, in proportion to the Centre’s instruction to the Delhi government on number of testing.

On Friday, a division bench of the Gujarat High Court which is headed by the Chief Justice Vikram Nath heard several matters relating to issues that were rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Advocate Trivedi had opposed the state’s submission stating that the “in Article 21, the fundamental right of the Constitution is not a complete right and is subject to reasonable restrictions.” He asked questioning if all were “under a political Emergency for example in 1975 where fundamental rights were with reasonable restrictions”. He repeated that this was a pandemic and the state’s resources are limited and they should not stop or have any right to stop anyone from getting tested at his own expense. He also stated that the state’s submission is “nothing but a negative mindset”. He also said that this is not a political emergency and a person’s fundamental rights cannot be taken away.

The recent testing policy as outlined by the Gujarat health department is questioned by the AMA. It had submitted that Gujarat’s daily testing should be increased as Delhi, with a population of 1.9 crore, has been instructed by the Centre to upgrade their testing to 18,000 per day.

Advocate Rohan Shah, along with Advocate Mitul Shelat, represents AMA and said that Gujarat has a population of 6.5 crore and should test up to 40,000 a day.

The state government’s policy which has stated that with government-appointed medical officers’ approvals or prescription by an MD is required for testing has been challenged to let testing happen if prescribed by an MBBS doctor. In an affidavit, filed by Dr Mona Desai, who heads AMA, advocates Rohan Shah and Mitul Shelat told the court that in rural areas Public Health Centres are operated by MBBS doctors. A suspected coronavirus patient has to travel to the nearest town, where the MD doctors are available.

Advocate General Kamal Trivedi that ICMR had submitted affidavit before the court on Friday, said that laboratory tests should be offered only when it is prescribed by a “qualified physician”, or MBBS doctors too.

In the meantime, an affidavit filed by Assistant Solicitor General Devang Vyas on behalf of ICMR, explained the jurisdiction on enclosing the testing policies by state government by the guidelines issued by ICMR. The guidelines which are issued by the central ministry of health are “statutory in nature,” and the other guidelines issued by the ICMR are “advisory in nature.” The said statutory guidelines belong to the protocols of COVID-19 testing in private laboratories.