Supreme Court stays yesterday's Allahabad High Court order, imposing lockdown in five cities of Uttar Pradesh. The Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice of India, SA Bobde today in its order asked the state of Uttar Pradesh to submit before the state High Court its various steps and measures taken to control the pandemic, within a week.
The matter was mentioned by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta before a bench headed by CJI SA Bobde seeking urgent listing.
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The Yogi Adityanath-led BJP government earlier today moved Supreme Court to challenge the Allahabad High Court order on imposing lockdown in its five cities, on the ground that the High Court did not have the domain to issue such kind of directions.
The high court had yesterday ordered the state government to impose a weeklong lockdown in Lucknow, Allahabad, Kanpur Nagar, Varanasi and Gorakhpur.
A two-judge bench comprising Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar while hearing a PIL on the treatment of coronavirus patients, observed that, "in given scenario of present time if people are restrained from going outside their homes for a week in the first instance, the current chain of the spread of COVID infection can be broken."
However, even as the state is recording a big spike in daily coronavirus cases, the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) Monday informed that there will not be any lockdown in the state. "There is no need to impose a complete lockdown. Weekend lockdowns will continue to curb the spread of Covid-19," CMO informed.