The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the State government to clarify by Friday as to whether the requirement of people having to obtain e-passes for both intra-State and inter-State travel to contain the spread of COVID-19 had been given up or not.
Chief Justice Amreshwar Pratap Sahi and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy directed State government pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayanan to obtain instructions from the authorities concerned and inform the court since there was no clarity on the issue so far.
The direction was issued during the hearing of a writ petition filed last month challenging the State government’s August 31 lockdown extension order, which stated that the insistence on obtaining e-passes for travel would continue for one more month in Tamil Nadu.
The petitioner, K.R. Ezhil Nadhi, contended that such insistence on e-passes amounted to curtailing the free movement of citizens. It was also argued that the State government had no authority to do so since the Union Home Ministry had permitted travel without e-passes.
Lockdown extension
When the case was listed again on Thursday, petitioner’s counsel told the court that the State government had issued yet another order on September 30, extending the limited lockdown by one more month. However, this order had no mention of e-passes.
Therefore, nothing much would survive for adjudication in the writ petition, if the State government informs the court that it had stopped insisting upon e-passes for travel, he said.
The State government pleader urged the court to grant him some time to obtain instructions.