The Supreme Court on Friday said hundreds of Shia pilgrims stranded in Qom city of Iran on account of the COVID-2019 pandemic were in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. The government should intervene immediately to alleviate their suffering.
Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and Surya Kant issued notice to the Centre after hearing senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, for petitioner Mustafa M.H., through videoconferencing.
Mr. Mustafa, whose relatives are among the pilgrims, sought urgent directions to the government to immediately evacuate them. Many of them were ill and had run short of money for basic sustenance, he said.
The court acknowledged that the petition shows “there is an urgent need for humanitarian assistance to be provided to Indian citizens who are stranded in Qom. In order to obviate concern over their well- being, we issue notice to the Union of India, returnable on March 30, 2020”.
‘Place status report’
The court asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the court. Mr. Mehta was asked to place a status report of the steps taken and which the Union of India, through the Ministry of External Affairs, proposes to undertake to alleviate the hardship which has been faced by these persons”.
“We hope and trust that in the meantime all necessary steps that are required to protect the welfare of these citizens will be adopted and a suitable plan of action will be chalked out in consultation with all the concerned authorities, including the Indian Embassy in Iran,” the order said.
The case was listed again on March 30.
The petition claims there are over 800-odd Indian citizens stuck in Qom. However, the order says there are about 500 pilgrims stranded there. Another 250 pilgrims were brought back to India from Qom.
Mr. Hegde said there was a possibility that several of the existing batch of 500 in Qom have tested positive for COVID-19.
“In case, urgent help is not provided to these pilgrims, there are bound to be serious health hazards, which have started to become fatal and has resulted in the death of two pilgrims already,” the petition said.
Till such time requisite arrangements were made for the evacuation of such passengers, the government should be directed to provide adequate health and medical support to the Indian citizens stranded in Iran. The government should ensure that they were quarantined in the manner prescribed by the World Health Organisation.
Mr. Mustafa, a native of Ladakh, said his relatives from Kargil-Drass travelled along with a group of about 1000 pilgrims to Iran in December last for a three-month trip. They were scheduled to return on various dates from February 26, 2020. However, they were stranded due to the virus outbreak.
“The pilgrims [mostly from a poor financial background] who had travelled to Iran were scheduled to return weeks back. However, in view of the situation mentioned above, they are stranded in Qom without any health/medical facilities and food supplies. Besides, they have been accommodated in hotel rooms in groups of four and five”, the petition said.
