A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed all political parties and organisations in the State to strictly adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the State and Central governments while organising dharna, demonstration and protest meeting.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice S. Manikumar and Justice Shaji P. Chali directed the State government to take preventive measures to ensure that no organisation violated the directives. The directives were issued on a public interest litigation filed by John Numpeli Junior of Kochi and two others.
The court observed that the directives of the governments made it clear that the guidelines were intended to be strictly adhered to by all citizens, political parties, and associations. Violation of these guidelines was punishable.
The court pointed out that a notification issued by the government on July 2 spoke about regulating social gatherings. Regulation 3(a) in the notification stipulated that no kind of social gathering, including get-together, processions, dharna, congregations, and demonstrations, shall be conducted without the written permission of the authority concerned. It further ordered that the maximum participants in such social gathering shall not exceed 10 persons and that the participants should wear face cover/masks, use sanitiser and observe a physical distance of six feet among themselves.
The court noted that during Unlock 2.0, certain activities, including, social, political, sports, entrainment, academic, cultural and religions functions and other large-scale congregations, were not allowed.
The Bench directed the State goverment to inform the court about the action taken against those who had violated the guidelines and directives.
