The Supreme Court on Friday has stayed the Orissa High Court order which said that only those migrants who tested negative for COVID-19 virus would be allowed to re-entre into the State.
A three-judge bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, and Justice BR Gavai has issued notice by taking note of the submission made by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that all migrants screened before boarding and only those who found as asymptomatic are allowed to proceed.
The Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the centre, said the Orissa High Court had failed to understand the “delicate nature of the situation and did not take into account SOP (standard operating procedure) by other states”.
The Apex Court while staying the 7th May, order of the Orrisa High Court also clarified that the stranded migrants need to be dealt with according to the order and guidelines of the Government of India dated 29th April read with the guidelines dated 1st May, issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The Top Court noted that the Orissa High Court did not consider the orders of the Ministry of Home Affairs which had laid down the guidelines to be followed in this regard. The Government order dated 29th April has provided ample protection, and these guidelines were neither considered nor were under challenge before the High Court.
The Orrisa High Court on 7th May had issued an interim order mandating the COVID-19 testing of every migrant before boarding the conveyance and such worker must first test negative and only if they do so, will they be allowed to enter the State of Orissa. The Special leave Petition filed by the Central Government was to challenge this order.
According to the SLP, the order was issued without hearing the Union of India and is not only unworkable but also failed to notice the standard operating procedure already being followed by the Central Government and the State Governments. The order also clearly impinges upon the executive domain and creates a pre condition which is unreasonable and impossible to perform, on part of the governments and the migrants workers who wish to travel back to their native places, and ignores the gradual strategy of the Executive in dealing with the issue at hand
The petition also stated that the Central Government, along with the State Governments, is taking all possible precautions at the stage of boarding, during travel, after de- boarding in every State and the subsequent quarantine.
In the petition, the Centre highlighted that there is a Standard operating Procedure (SOP) in place which is being followed by the Centre and the States for facilitating the return of stranded people to their home States, which the impugned order failed to consider, also ignoring the nature of the present pandemic and the delicate handling of the situation by the Executive, after consideration of all possible factors
The Centre informed the Court that all required and necessary precautions at the boarding, travel, and de-boarding stages are being taken by both Central and State Governments and the order of the High Court would make it impossible to perform the exercise of repatriating migrants to their home states.
-India Legal Bureau