Plea in Delhi HC seeks release of quarantined persons related to Tablighi Jamaat congregation

A petition has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking immediate release of all persons related to Tablighi Jamaat congregation claiming they have been detained for more than 35 days in the name of quarantine.

The petition, moved by social activist Sabiha Quadri through advocate Shahid Ali, sought the constitution of a high-level committee to investigate as to why and on whose orders these peoples have been put under quarantine for so long despite consecutively testing negative.

The plea filed on Wednesday also sought that the high-level/power committee enquire and investigate as to whether continuous confinement of members of Tablighi Jamaat is violative of the Constitution of India or that the same is warranted under any law.

It also sought a committee enquiry into whether the same principle of quarantine has been applied upon all people placed under quarantine or there is the existence of discrimination with further powers to committee to suggest and recommend the actions against guilty andresponsible officials.

The plea also alleged two members of Tablighi Jamat died due to hunger in Sultanpuri quarantine centre and sought directions for the registration of an FIR and probe in the matter.

The Government of Delhi and other respondents have already violated the impugned guidelines and many people have been illegally and malafidely lodged in quarantine centres as if they are being punished for any crime and their illegal detention is being continuously increasing every day and even every minute, the plea said.

The petitioner said that she is constrained to file the petition since the Delhi government, SDM and DM have failed to discharge their duties and to comply with their own guidelines as well asof Government of India as regards quarantine.

"In fact, the government and its officials are so careless and negligent that they have not been paying any heed to just and legitimate demands of persons under quarantine. The approach of the government and its concerned officials is malafide, arbitrary, malicious and ill-motivated and can not be allowed to sustain in a society governed by the rule of law," the plea said.

"The inhuman acts of government and responsible respondents have made the life of thousands of people, presently locked up in quarantine centres, impossible to be endured," it added.

The plea also prayed for the direction to the respondents to comply with the guidelines for the quarantine facilities and to immediately release the persons under quarantine for more than 35 days, whose negative test reports have come thus showing that they are not infected.

Earlier, an FIR was registered against Tablighi Jamaat chief and others under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897 in connection with the congregation held at Markaz Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital.

( With inputs from ANI )