Kerala High Court Comes Down On Relaxations Allowed Ahead Of CPI(M) District Meet Amid COVID Surge; Bans Gathering Above 50 Persons In Kasargod

The Kerala High Court on Friday barred all public gatherings exceeding 50 individuals in the Kasargod district for a week citing the increasing number of Covid-19 cases, posing a major setback to the ongoing District Meet of the ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)The Court passed the order in a writ petition which alleged that the District Collector had revoked an earlier order that limited attendance in public meetings to facilitate the CPI(M)'s Kasargod District meet.A Division Bench of Justice Vinod Chandran and Justice C. Jayachandran issued an interim order that reads as follows:"we issue an interim order directing the District Collector, the 4th respondent who is also the Chairperson of the District Disaster Management Authority to ensure that no meetings are conducted within the district allowing participation of more than 50 persons. This interim order shall remain in force for a period of one week, with any more stringent conditions being at the discretion of the District Collector."The Court also noted that such a step was imperative when the State was at the brink of the third wave of the pandemic:"The spike in infection is what concerns the entire world and admittedly the hospitalizations continue unabated; though not to the extent of the first and second waves. The infection rate, however, is much more than the earlier times. We are on the cusp of the third wave is the general perception."The Division Bench also pointed out that the infection was rising day by day and that news reports indicate that it is scheduled to be highest by the 15th of February, 2022. In such circumstances, the Court noted that it was not appropriate for the State to keep oscillating the parameters to decide the gravity of the pandemic in each district: "Suffice it to say that the Government cannot blow hot and cold by saying that they are not looking at the TPR are more concerned with the hospitalization; which is very minimal, as propounded by the State and again fall back upon the TPR to convince us of the minimal severity. Having negated TPR, the Government cannot again fall back upon the TPR statistics to say that there could be public meetings conducted without any restrictions."Additionally, the Court noted that even for the Republic Day Celebrations scheduled on January 26th, the stipulation was that there should be only a gathering of 50 persons. The Court noted that on January 20, the Government has issued an order imposing new restrictions amid COVID surge. As such, it ruled that the District Collector should ensure that no meetings are conducted within Kasargod allowing participation of more than 50 persons.The interim order was issued in a Public Interest Litigation moved by an advocate clerk challenging the revocation of the Collector's order imposing restrictions to mitigate the resurgence of COVID-19 cases in the Kasargod district.Earlier, the Collector had issued an order only allowing 50 persons in any public gathering, including political gatherings to mitigate COVID -19 cases.The petitioner contends that this order was to be strictly complied with as per the Disaster Management Act, 2005.However, in a revised order issued on Thursday, it was stated that the restriction should not be based on the test positivity rate (TPR) but on hospitalization and the number of beds available in hospitals. According, it permitted a gathering of 150 persons.Meanwhile, this decision of the Collector to lift restrictions came to the advantage of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which had scheduled its district meet to be conducted over a span of three days, starting today. This was subsequently reduced to two days considering the prevailing pandemic situation. The PIL moved through Advocates Ayyappadas, Vykhari K.U and Jayaprakash Narayanan contended that such withdrawal of COVID-19 curbs can potentially affect the health conditions of the people in the State.The Court noted that the revised order was ambiguous and offered no clarity behind the withdrawal of restrictions in the district when Covid-19 cases were on a hike. The petitioner had alleged that the COVID-19 restrictions were compromised possibly to facilitate CPI(M) district meetings.It has been argued by the petitioner that the Collector can only amend his orders on certain new circumstances for the purpose of prevention of disasters or their mitigation.On the contrary, the order withdrawing restrictions was not issued for the purpose of prevention of COVID-19 and Omicron cases in the district, it was argued.As such, it was prayed that the Court direct the Collector to ensure strict compliance to the initial order imposing Covid-19 curbs without any dilutions thereof and to prohibit CPI(M) from conducting their District Conference in violation of all protocols.However, the State Attorney submitted before the Court that the said order was no longer in force since the District Collector had issued another order dated 20.01.2022 with more stringent ...

Kerala High Court Comes Down On Relaxations Allowed Ahead Of CPI(M) District Meet Amid COVID Surge; Bans Gathering Above 50 Persons In Kasargod

Hannah M Varghese

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