How to handle "Accept Cookies" message when an automation script runs - selenium-webdriver

Question

I am writing a selenium test script which navigates to the url, say https://www.flipkart.com/ (This is just an example website)
When you first time navigate to the home page, a message regarding Cookies is displayed and there is a button "Accept Cookies".
Whenever my selenium script runs and navigates to the home page, every time it gets the cookie message as described earlier. My question is what needs to be done so that the script will not encounter such cookie consent message?
I have managed to store the cookies in in a file. It is as below
_gut_UB-97923818-1;1;.mycompany.com;/;Fri Mar 29 18:12:07 EET 2019;false
I have also tried to set its expiry with below code
public void retrieveCookie()
{
try{
File file = new File("Cookie.data");
FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(file);
BufferedReader Buffreader = new BufferedReader(fileReader);
String strline;
while((strline=Buffreader.readLine())!=null){
StringTokenizer token = new StringTokenizer(strline,";");
while(token.hasMoreTokens()){
String name = token.nextToken();
String value = token.nextToken();
String domain = token.nextToken();
String path = token.nextToken();
Date expiry = null;
String val;
if(!(val=token.nextToken()).equals("null")){ //Thu Mar 28 23:26:39 EET 2019
expiry = new Date(val);
}
Boolean isSecure = new Boolean(token.nextToken()).booleanValue();
Cookie ck = new Cookie(name,value,domain,path,expiry,isSecure);
BaseDriver.getDriver().manage().addCookie(ck); // This will add the stored cookie to our current session
}
}
}catch(Exception ex){
ex.printStackTrace();
}
BaseDriver.getDriver().get("https://www.flipkart.com/");
}
However I get java.lang.IllegalArgumentException exception at line,
expiry = new Date(val);
It is because it is not able to parse the date
Can someone share the code so that the date can be parsed?
My only intention is whenever the test script runs, it should not encounter the cookie consent message. If there is any other way to achieve this, please suggest.