Instructing the State government to take all steps to contain proliferation of COVID-19 (Caronavirus), the Telangana High Court on Wednesday said the government should issue advisories to educational institutions to take precautionary measures.
A bench of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice A. Abhishek Reddy, hearing a PIL plea seeking ban on Holy celebrations in the backdrop of rising COVID-19 cases, said the police department must be instructed to review permissions granted to huge public congregations. Permission should be given as less as possible to big gatherings since it involved the risk of spread of the virus due to mingling of people.
A 45-year-old social worker G. Siddha Lakshmi from Manikonda filed the PIL petition by moving lunch motion. She sought a direction to the government to prohibit celebration of Holi on Monday and Tuesday. Dry and water colours are sprinkled by revellers while celebrating the festival of colours and this escalates the possibility of quicker spreading of the virus, the petitioner contended. Ms. Lakshmi also said hygiene practices should be publicised to keep the virus at bay.
After hearing contentions of senior counsel Vedula Venkata Ramana appearing for the petitioner, the bench said the government should issue advisories immediately to all educational institutions to take precautionary measures to control COVID-19. It instructed the government to set up isolation wards and exclusive hospitals for persons with the symptoms.
The bench said advisories should be issued to all orphanages, shelter homes, old age homes and prisons on preventive and curative measures. Organisations and others planning to hold Holi festivities on a big scale must be persuaded to minimise the celebrations with the threat of COVID-19 spread looming large.
The government should hold a meeting with all stake-holders along with the Director General of Prisons to prepare an action plan to tackle the virus which was spreading its wings in the State. The bench instructed that no under-trial prisoner should be presented before the High Court or trial courts in the State. The lower courts were instructed not to pass any adverse orders against any accused if they did not appear before the court.
The bench asked members of the HC Bar Association and those of other courts in the State to impress upon their clients not to come to the courts unless there was a dire need. It said that masks would be provided at the reception of the HC free of cost.
Senior lawyer S. Niranjan Reddy was appointed Amicus Curiae in the PIL petition. Mr. Reddy said that two more instances of testing positive for the virus were reported in the State. He said that since hospitals were among vulnerable places to contact the virus, isolation wards were the need of the hour. He suggested that government follow guidelines issued by UK government to tackle the virus.
The matter would be heard again on Thursday.