The Aurangabad Bench of the Bombay High Court on Monday pulled up the State for making a general and sweeping statement that COVID-19 virus could spread through newspapers.
On April 20, a single Bench of Justice Prasanna Varale had converted articles published in a Marathi daily, and The Hindu, titled, “Maharashtra allows printing but bans distribution of newspapers” into a suo motu public interest litigation.
The government then said door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines was prohibited in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, within the Pune Municipal Corporation limits, and in all containment zones. In these areas, they may be sold through the establishments that are exempted from the lockdown regulations.
As per HC’s directions, government pleader D.R. Kale filed an affidavit on Monday. “According to experts, COVID-19 virus can stay on various surfaces for a considerable amount of time and the newspaper is something that will be passed on from hand to hand, which can increase the chances of infection spreading to more number of people,” it said.
The court said, “It seems that this is only a general and sweeping statement made in the affidavit in reply. There is no reference to any comment of experts in the field or any opinion formed by someone working in the health area.”
On the contrary, the HC said, statements of certain experts published in newspapers are to the effect that there is no need to carry an impression that the newspaper is a medium for spreading the novel coronavirus. “In the affidavit, there is also a reference to the containment zones being created by the State government where the spreading of infection is considerably high,” the court said.
The court also said, “During the lockdown period, not only the readership of newspapers does increase but the average time spent on reading newspapers also goes up as the general public is interested to know the latest information.” The Bench posted the matter for further hearing on June 11.
The HC had on April 20 said, “One fails to understand, when the State is permitting purchase of newspapers at the established stalls and shops, then why door-to-door delivery of newspapers is prohibited.”
“If the State government permitting people to approach such stalls and shops means there would only be one reason or excuse to move out of the houses during the lockdown period, then it would certainly cause some movements on the streets,” it had said.
