High Court Asks Telangana Govt to Decide on Weekend Lockdown as Covid Cases Surge

The Telangana High Court on Monday directed the State government to issue within 48 hours COVID-19 guidelines to minimise footfalls in liquor shops, restaurants, marriage halls and cinemas, among other crowded places. A bench of Chief Justice Hima Kohli and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, hearing a batch of public interest litigations (PILs) on COVID-19 issues, wanted some sort of restrictions during weekends as part of the containment measures against COVID-19.

The court said the government has to take a call on whether imposing curfew/lockdown as one of the containment measures during weekends wherever it is necessary for restricting crowds. “We will review. We will consider to pass appropriate orders (in the next hearing),” the Bench further said.

The bench expected the state government to also take independent decisions notwithstanding the guidelines of the Central government. This comes after the advocate general informed the court that the state government has been following the guidelines of the Centre.

The court directed the government to file a report before it while posting the matter to April 23. Telangana has been witnessing high number of COVID-19 cases in the past few days causing concern to the authorities.

Earlier, counsel of one of the petitioners contended that there was lack of transparency in availability of medical oxygen and availability of beds in the state.

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