Plea seeking release of quarantined Tablighi Jamaat congregation members withdrawn from Delhi HC

A petition filed 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to Tablighi Jamaat congregation claiming they have been detained for more than 35 days in the name of quarantine was withdrawn on Friday.

The petitioner, social activist Sabiha Quadri, decided to withdraw the petition after the submission of counsel representing Delhi government stated that the Delhi government has already ordered the release of these people from quarantine.

A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice C Harishankar was hearing a plea also seeking 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 petition, moved by Quadri through advocate Shahid Ali, had sought that a high-level/power committee conduct an investigation 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 had 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 and officials responsible.

The plea had 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 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 had 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 )