Reduce cap on participants at weddings and funerals further, Gujarat HC suggests

AHMEDABAD: The Gujarat high court on Tuesday suggested the state government to take a call on further reducing the number of guests allowed to participate in weddings and funerals at present.
Currently, a maximum of 50 people are allowed to attend weddings and up to 20 people are permitted to take part in funerals.
During the hearing of a suo motu PIL on the surge in Covid-19 cases, the HC asked the state government to consider reducing the number of participants in social functions. The HC’s suggestion came after senior advocate Shalin Mehta submitted that the high court had in its last order on May 4 said that the existing restriction measures to break the chain of virus are not enough and the government should take stricter action to restrain unnecessary movement of people and gatherings.
Advocate Mehta submitted that the government was asked to ponder over the HC suggestions. It has allowed maximum attendance of 50 persons during a marriage, which is too many. He said that the government can order to suspend all marriage functions for seven days and stop super-spreader events. He said that the limit of 20 persons during funerals also needed to be brought down.
The state government’s counsel submitted that the authorities are trying their best to implement the court’s directions. To this, the bench of Justice Bela Trivedi and Justice Bhargav Karia said that from the record the court knows that the officers have done a good job, but the government may think over advocate Mehta’s suggestions and reduce the limit of people’s participation in marriages and funerals. The court even commented that nowadays, nobody even wants to attend such functions.
The state government submitted that, on the other hand, it has been receiving various requests to increase the limit of people who can participate in such social functions.