The Delhi High Court has adjourned a suo motu petition filed after a judge received WhatsApp messages of photographs clicked by an AIIMS doctor showing street vendors ignoring Covid-19 protocols.
The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla could not take up the matter due to paucity of time. The next date of hearing is November 31.
The court while issuing notice in order dated June 18, 2021 had said: “The memory of the second wave of Covid-19 has not yet disappeared, with many people having suffered personal loss in the same. The experts are in fact warning of a third wave. Such breach of Covid-19 protocol may only escalate and probably hasten the outbreak of the third wave of Covid19 and this cannot be permitted under any circumstances.”
On October 25, 2021 the court had perused the Status Reports filed by Ministry of Home Affairs, Delhi Police and Government of NCT of Delhi. Upon the perusal of the status reports, the court acknowledged steps being taken towards ensuring that shopkeepers/vendors/their staff members and customers in the market places maintain the desired and mandatory Covid-19 protocols.
“We expect that the Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures issued by the Authorities as well as the necessary measures and precautions referred to in the Status Reports, shall be scrupulously and strictly adhered to and the Municipal Corporations as well as the Law Enforcement Agencies shall ensure strict enforcement of the Covid-19 protocols and the Covid-19 appropriate behaviour, especially, as the festive season is round the corner,” the order dated October 25, 2021 had said.