Decide on night curfew urgently to control COVID-19 pandemic, HC tells Delhi government

The Government of Delhi will have the discretion to decide whether imposition of night curfew is required or not, the Delhi High Court (HC) has said. The court said that the Delhi Government will decide if the night curfew is to be imposed in the city or some of its parts or if other measures need to be adopted to contain the COVID-19 onslaught. 

The Delhi HC has asked GNCTD to take a decision urgently on whether a curfew should be implemented. The remarks came from a division bench headed by Justice Hima Kohli while enquiring from the counsel for the Government of Delhi as to whether it is proposing to follow up the request made to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Government of India for permission to close down certain markets and other places, on a case-to-case basis. 

It was submitted that the request in this regard was still pending at the end of the central government, ANI report said.  

During the hearing, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government informed the bench that there was no decision yet on imposing any kind of curfew. The proposal was under active consideration depending on the surge in COVID-19 infection, it had said, informing the court. 

The Delhi Government`s response came on HC’s query if the government was planning to impose night curfews or weekend curfews like what was being observed in various other cities in the country. 

The court also instructed Advocate Anurag Ahulawalia, who appeared for Centre, to obtain clear instructions from the Union of India with regards to this, ANI reported.  

After getting instructions from centre, he informed the court that in terms of the new guidelines for surveillance, containment and caution issued on 25 November by the MHA, states and UTs can now impose local restrictions with a view to contain the spread of COVID-19 such as night curfew, on their own assessment of the situation though any imposition of a local lockdown outside the containment zones in state/district/sub-division/city level will require prior consultation with the central government. 

The court has asked GNCTD to file a fresh status report and listed the matter for further hearing on 3 December. 

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The court was hearing a petition filed by advocate Rakesh Malhotra seeking directions to conduct large-scale rapid testing in the national capital for identifying the infected people.