SC grants 10 days to Centre to file additional affidavit on plea to ban disinfection tunnels

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted ten days time to the Centre to file an additional affidavit on a PIL seeking an immediate ban on the use, installation, production and advertisement of disinfectant tunnels set up to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted 10 days time to the Centre to file an additional affidavit on a PIL seeking an immediate ban on the use, installation, production and advertisement of disinfectant tunnels set up to curb the spread of coronavirus.

A bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan granted 10 days to the Centre to file an additional affidavit and posted the matter for hearing in the last week of October.

"A request has been made on behalf of learned Solicitor General for filing additional documents. As prayed, 10 days time is granted for filing the additional affidavit. The matter is listed to be heard in the last week of October 2020," the bench said in its order.

Earlier, the bench had sought response from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Ministry of Science and Technology and Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare as regards the matter.The apex court was hearing a PIL filed by law student Gursimran Singh Narula seeking a ban on usage, installation, production, advertisement of disinfection tunnels involving spraying or fumigation of orgc disinfectants for the purposes of disinfecting human beings.

The plea said that in the guise of preventing COVID-19 many stisation and disinfection devices have emerged which wrongfully claim to be effective in preventing the spread of this virus. It added, "These include disinfection tunnels involving spraying and fumigation of disinfectants and disinfection tunnels exposing human beings to ultra-violet rays with a belief of disinfecting them."

The PIL also sought a direction to ban the usage, installation, advertisement, production, and sale of such disinfection tunnels which seeks to spray or fumigate disinfectants on human beings or expose human beings to ultra-violet rays with a belief to disinfect them.

The World Health Orgzation (WHO) and many other scientific authorities across the world have warned about their ineffectiveness and dangerous after-effects. The WHO and other health experts across the world have raised an alarm that unchecked and misinformed usage of such disinfection tunnels can have serious physical and psychological consequences on human beings, the plea added.

( With inputs from ANI )