Breaking: Religious Congregation in New Delhi, Gujrat HC Asks Centre to file details of Participants [Read Order]
Pic Courtesy Deccan Herald
(Syed Ali Taher Abedi)
The Gujrat High Court took a Suo motto cognizance of the religious congregation of about 2000 people at a Mosque in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area which has endangered several Coronavirus positive cases.
The Court in its order said that “In View of the incident of Mass Congregation in Delhi and Highlighting of its aftermath not only in news channels yesterday but also in all leading newspapers today, by an administrative order of this date the matter was fixed at 12.00 Noon”
The Congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month has turned out to be a hotspot of Coronavirus.
A division bench comprising of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Ashutosh Shastri directed the Central as well as State Government to submit a detailed report pertaining to what corrective and punitive measures were being taken, or can be taken, if the participants in the congregation in Delhi’s Nizamuddin were found to be positive of Coronavirus.
Shri Vyas, Assistant Solicitor of General India submitted that many of the participants in that congregation were foreign nationals who were preachers. It is further submitted that these foreign nationals have entered the country on Tourist Visa as against Missionary Visa which are location and event specific and entail through scrutiny.
The Union of India in its report will provide complete information to the State of Gujarat and to the Court in a sealed cover available with them of all those persons irrespective of their nationality who were party to Tablighi Jamaat and have entered State of Gujarat by giving the
following details: –
(i) Details of the Nationality, purpose of visit and nature of Visas of those foreign nationals who have attended the said congregation and have now entered the State of Gujarat.
(ii) The Union of India shall also specify how many individuals of the aforementioned list have been identified belonging to State of Gujarat and the steps taken qua them to prevent the spread of COVID-19 Virus in case they have been detained in Delhi.
(iii) The Union of India shall also provide details as to
various advisories and communique issued by the Ministry
of Home Affairs/External Affairs as applicable.
(b) The State Government in its report will provide the
following details: –
(i) Details shared by the Union of India with the State of Gujarat and the steps taken by the State of Gujarat with regard to identifying those individuals who have attended the congregation and as a consequence are exposed to the Virus.
(ii) Quarantine, testing and other steps taken by the State
in regard to such persons.
(iii) The State shall also provide details of those people who
have been untraceable, if any.
(iv) Steps taken for the implementation of the restrictions
that may have been imposed by the State with respect to
gatherings at all worship places such as Temples, Churches, Gurudwaras, Mosques and strict compliance thereof.
Further, the High Court has directed the state Government that its earlier order relating to restriction of religious gatherings be implemented very strictly.
The High Court has directed the Union of India and the Government of State of Gujarat to work in coordination as to identify and out such infected persons from public domain. They have also been asked to file action taken report by April3.The Court ordered.
“We leave it open to the State to take all measures preventive or coercive as may be deemed necessary to carry out not only the guidelines and directions issued by the Central Government, the State Government but also by this Court in order to effectively contain and prevent the deadly Virus from spreading any further” the court said.
The court observed that during the congregation which started in Delhi sometime in the second half of the February, 2020 and continued till last week of March,2020, these people may have passed infection to others participating in the congregation.
“news reports further confirmed the death of one person in Gujarat out of a total of 8 deaths all over the country who had participated in the congregation at
Delhi. More than two dozen participants in the congregation have been confirmed positive for the deadly Virus. No one knows where all these 200 or
more members of the congregation are now based in the State of Gujarat”.
Kamal Trivedi Advocate General with ML Shah, Government Pleader, Devyang Vyas, Assistant Solicitor General and Mitesh Amin, Public Prosecutor appeared in the case.
[Read Order]
