Recent directives by some state governments, saying that anyone entering the state must have a COVID negative certificate and its fallouts, have been questioned in the Delhi High Court. The court has asked the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) to state its position on this need for a doctor’s prescription/certificate and this will be taken up when the court hears it on July 31.
Reacting to a writ petition from Utsav Sidhu, Reginald Walslan, and Rakesh Talukdar, challenging the mandatory requirement of a prescription for COVID19, the court’s single bench of Justice Navin Chawla gave this directive.
The petition said that this pre-requisite raises the grievances of professionals who are required to travel to various states in the course of their professional obligations.
The petitioners have stated that many states, such as Himachal Pradesh, require individuals to produce COVID negative certificates before being allowed to enter.
On July 1, the ICMR strongly advised states to ensure that laboratories are free to conduct tests without the prior requirement of a doctor’s prescription.
The petition details the problem. The new directives require that travelers to certain states produce a COVID negative certificate. That forces the person to go to a laboratory to test. However, as per rules, the person will have to have a doctor’s prescription to get the test done at the lab in the first place. This effectively leaves the decision of the traveler to travel in the hands of the doctor.
Read the order here;
74071_2020-India Legal Bureau