Plea in High Court against Delhi LG’s five-day institutional quarantine order

On Saturday, a plea was filed in the Delhi high court challenging the order issued by Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Anil Baijal a day earlier, which had directed five-day institutional quarantine mandatory for coronavirus disease (Covid-19) patients.

The order was, however, withdrawn on Saturday evening after the LG tweeted that ‘only those COVID positive cases which do not require hospitalisation on clinical assessment and do not have adequate facilities for home isolation would be required to undergo institutional isolation’.

The plea, filed by an advocate, Nancy Roy, said that the directions issued by the L-G are harsh, compelling Covid-19 patients to undergo five-day institutional quarantine at a time, when the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government is unable to provide an adequate number of beds and nurses for all those, who are in dire need of hospitalisation because of the viral outbreak.

The petition, which is likely to come up for hearing next week, said that the Delhi government has already issued press releases to the effect that its entire manpower is stretched, and on top of that, they would have to arrange massive quarantine centres for housing thousands of asymptomatic patients.

The plea stated that the order is likely to deter people from undergoing Covid-19 tests for fear of being sent to the government-run quarantine centres

It also cited that “more hospital beds” would be required for these institutional quarantine cases, whereas the critical patients would be left unattended for want of beds.

The petition pointed out that the new rule would “overburden isolation centres, which are unhygienic, and could lead to a further spread of the contagion”. It is likely to create more chaos, the plea added.

It also contended that the L-G’s order would put senior citizens under tremendous physical and mental hardship.

The plea prayed for a quashing of the June 19 order issued by L-G Baijal, as the head of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA).

Earlier on Saturday, the Delhi government also opposed the L-G’s order.

CM Arvind Kejriwal, who met the L-G in the afternoon, questioned the move.

“If the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is allowing home-isolation facility for asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic cases across the country, why are different rules being implemented in Delhi?” he asked.

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