The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the Allahabad high court order on virtually imposing a lockdown in the five worst Covid-19 hit districts of the state for at least two to three weeks.
A bench, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, ordered an interim stay after the state government moved an appeal against the high court order passed a day ago.
The development came on a day chief minister Yogi Adityanath imposed a weekend curfew from 8pm on Friday to 7am on Monday in districts with at least 500 active cases. The curfew will not apply to essential services.
“Please leave home only if urgently necessary,” he tweeted. The state reported 29,574 cases and 162 deaths on Tuesday.
In the apex court, solicitor general Tushar Mehta, representing the UP government, complained that the judicial direction regarding complete lockdown in Lucknow, Prayagraj, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi and Gorakhpur was not warranted as the state was mindful of the situations and was already taking all possible steps to contain the spread of Covid-19.
“Several steps are taken in that direction and we can satisfy the conscience of this court. Some of them, we are already doing and we don’t object to some other. But it may not be the right approach to order lockdown in five cities because there are several other factors that also need to be considered,” argued the S-G.
{{/usCountry}}“Several steps are taken in that direction and we can satisfy the conscience of this court. Some of them, we are already doing and we don’t object to some other. But it may not be the right approach to order lockdown in five cities because there are several other factors that also need to be considered,” argued the S-G.
{{/usCountry}}Accepting Mehta’s submission, the bench, also comprising justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, ordered an interim stay on the high court order, recording Mehta’s statement that the state has issued several directions to contain the spread of the virus and was taking adequate precautions.
At the same time, the SC directed that the “state government shall immediately report to the high court about the steps it has taken and proposes to take in the immediate future within a period of one week in view of the current pandemic.”
The court, however, decided to keep the matter pending before it and appointed senior advocate PS Narasimha as the amicus curiae (friend of the court) to assist it in the case after two weeks.
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On Monday, the Allahabad HC directed the UP government to strictly enforce closure of all establishments (government or private) in Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur Nagar and Gorakhpur till April 26
The order was passed by a bench of justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar. It noted the recent Covid-19 surge in these cities has ‘virtually incapacitated’ Uttar Pradesh’s entire medical infrastructure.
Late on Monday, the state government said there would be no statewide lockdown or any fresh restrictions in the five cities. The state government also rushed to appeal against this order before the SC. Advocate Rajat Nair drafted the appeal overnight and the S-G secured an urgent hearing from the CJI on Tuesday.
The state government, in its appeal, said that although the intention behind the HC order was laudable and salutary, the HC has failed to appreciate that it encroached upon the executive domain and has passed a mandamus, which was incapable of being executed at the present stage, and if executed, would result into panic, fear and law and order situation in UP.