Anxious with rise in COVID cases in Delhi, lawyer moves HC with plea seeking strict lockdown

With coronavirus cases rising and estimated to reach 5.5 lakh by July end in Delhi, an anxious lawyer has approached the Delhi High Court with a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking the imposition of a strict lockdown in the city.

The PIL, filed by lawyer rban Mondal and his staff Pawan Kumar through advocate Mridul Chakravarty, sought directions to Delhi government to seriously consider the imposition of a strict lockdown in the city in the light of the respondent's admission that Delhi is expected to have 5.5 lakh confirmed coronavirus cases by the end of July.

The plea said that Delhi needs to follow the example of Mizoram, which has imposed a strict lockdown for a period of 14 days from June 9, with only 88 reported cases at the time.

"This needs to be contrasted with the fact that Delhi on June 9 had reported 1,366 fresh cases of COVID-19," the plea said.

The petition said that Mondal is deeply anguished with the worsening coronavirus situation in the city and sought the formation of an expert committee, consisting of doctors, medical specialists, leading virologists for preparing a detailed blueprint for controlling and containing the forthcoming situation of the huge spread of the virus.

It also sought that a report by the said expert committee should also be submitted before this court for ensuring compliance by the respondents.

Mondal also demanded that the expert committee should keep a vigil on the prevailing and the forthcoming situation in Delhi and suggest appropriate measures for control and containment of COVID-19 under the guided monitoring of the high court.

The people residing and working in the city are facing an unprecedented and far-reaching dangerous health emergency in the form of a rampant wide-spread of the coronavirus andthe spike in the rate of spread of the virus has multiplied mfolds in the past few weeks, the plea said.

It said that the Delhi government's primary focus right now should not be on the monetary or economic aspects but on the health and safety of its people.

"The people are the most precious and valuable resource of any State and their preservation should be the utmost, noblest vision for the administration. As such, the basic necessity for the survival of people is food and water which needs to be ensured by the State, rather than giving primacy to money in the hands of the public," the plea said.

"The petition is being preferred for the preservation of the right of the people of Delhi to basic services like healthcare facilities in the times of spread of the COVID-19, for which controlling the spiralling infection numbers is of utmost importance, and for the resultant conservation of the fundamental rights of such people qua right to life, enshrined under Article 21, under Part III of the Constitution of India," it added.

It said that the Delhi government and its administration are dutybound to render all services in the favour of maintaining good health of people within the city, to the best of its capabilities, for achieving the aforesaid sacrosanct noble cause.

( With inputs from ANI )