The court also directed the government to come up with a positive plan regarding evacuation and the steps taken so far to provide the students with medical and other assistance. (File Photo)
The Delhi High Court Thursday directed the Centre to ensure that the Indian embassy in Iran gets in touch with the Indian students stranded there in wake of the coronavirus outbreak instead of “merely issuing advisories”.
Justice Navin Chawla asked the Centre to assure the students of all assistance and to “do a little more” than what it has been doing till now to evacuate over 3,000 Indian nationals, including pilgrims, fishermen and students, presently stranded in Iran. The court also directed the government to come up with a positive plan regarding evacuation and the steps taken so far to provide the students with medical and other assistance.
The court’s oral observation came during hearing of a plea by nine parents seeking to airlift their children and urging that the authorities be directed to arrange other modes of transportation in order to provide “humanitarian assistance to the Indian students stranded in different universities of Iran”.
Appearing for the ministries, the Centre’s standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia apprised the court that mass evacuation was not possible as Iran has banned all commercial flights connecting to India from February 26 and those stranded there have to be tested for Covid-19 before they can be brought back.
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Ahluwalia contended that there was no local support on the ground from Iranian authorities. He said it took several rounds of negotiations before the Iranian authorities allowed Indian scientists to set up a lab there to collect samples from Indian citizens and allowed an IAF plane to evacuate 58 nationals, including 25 women and two children.
He further said that the embassy there was in contact with Indian nationals and advisories have been issued to them following the health protocols issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The judge said, “Merely issuing advisories was not going to help. That is no assurance. You know where the students are. You have to contact them. Not doing so will not be tolerated. Get in touch with them and give a report by Tuesday (March 17).”