Writ seeks to ban protests during COVID-19 times

A writ petition was filed in the Kerala High Court on Monday seeking to declare illegal and unconstitutional public gatherings organised in the State by political parties in the name of protests, in view of the COVID-19 situation. The petition was filed by John Numpeli Junior of Kochi and two others. According to them, the public were required to follow the health advisories issued by the Central and State governments from time to time. There were statutory guidelines to regulate public activities during the time of the pandemic. Social or political functions and other large congregations were not permitted. The district magistrates had been authorised to take strict action against such activities. However, large-scale public protest marches were being taken out by various political parties and their youth organisations. Recently, lot of public protests were staged by Opposition parties alleging involvement of government officials in the gold smuggling incident. Protest meetings were also organised against the rise in price of fuels.

The petitioners pointed out that these protest meetings were being organised when the spread of COVID-19 was on the rise in the State and the government was taking urgent steps to contain it.

The petitioners also sought to restrain the political parties and their organisations from organising any kind of political or social activities with large public gathering when the COVID-19 regulations were in force.