High Court refuses to pass order on petition against Lovely Professional University

The Punjab and Haryana High Court has refused to pass any direction or order on a petition filed in public interest for instructing the Punjab Government and other official respondents to test students and other persons residing on the campus of Lovely Professional University for Covid-19.

Taking up the case through videoconferencing, the Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli asserted it was evident that necessary steps for conducting screening of all students and other persons residing on the university premises were being undertaken by the state in accordance with the Indian Council and Medical Research guidelines. Besides, a show-cause notice had been issued to the university and response was awaited.

“Taking note of the facts, we do not find any necessity to issue any direction or pass an order in respect of the issues raised by the petitioner at this stage. Thus, without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, the present petition is disposed of granting liberty to the petitioner, as prayed for, to take up all possible grievances before the authorities and recourse to law, if so advised,” the Bench asserted.

The petition was filed by Sahil Kumar, son of former union minister Vijay Sampla. He was, among other things, seeking directions for preventing the spread of the disease within the university campus. It was added that the university despite the spread of Covid-19 had retained 2,421 students in the hostel.