[Gangasagar Mela] Only fully vaccinated persons to be allowed entry, oversight committee changed by Calcutta High Court

The Calcutta High Court on Monday made it clear that only fully vaccinated persons would be allowed to attend the annual Gangasagar Mela in West Bengal [Dr Avinandan Mondal v. State of West Bengal and Others]..The Court also partially modified its order of January 7, changing the composition of a committee formed to look into the implementation of various safeguards during the Gangasagar Mela in light of the rise in COVID-19 cases in the State..Earlier, the Court had ordered the formation of a three-member committee comprising the Leader of Opposition in the State or his representative, the Chairman of the West Bengal Human Rights Commission or his representative and a representative of the State.Now, a two-member committee comprising retired High Court judge Justice Samapti Chatterjee as its Chairperson and the Member Secretary of West Bengal Legal Services Authority will oversee the conduct of the event.A Division Bench of Chief Justice Prakash Shrivastava and Justice Kesang Doma Bhutia noted in its latest order,"A submission has also been made before this Court that Committee formed by this Court should not only be an independent Committee but it should not have political member. To avoid any misapprehension in the mind of the applicants or the State we deemed it proper to reconstitute the Committee with the retired Judge of this High Court as Chairperson to review the situation on the spot at Ganga Sagar Island.".The Court on Monday heard a batch of intervention applications (IAs) seeking modification of its order dated January 7.After considering the issues raised and the suggestions made in the IAs, the Court passed additional guidelines:The respondent No. 3, Principal Secretary, Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal will ensure that only persons who have received the two dose of COVID vaccination and are having second vaccination certificate are permitted to enter the Sagar Islands during the Mela period.Only those who are having COVID negative in RTPCR report of within 72 hours, will be permitted to enter the Sagar Islands.The competent authority is directed to issue a notification in terms of Section 3 of Gangasagar Mela Act, 1976 declaring the whole of the area within the Sagar Islands as notified area within 24 hours.The Chief Secretary, Government of West Bengal will be personally liable to ensure the compliance of above directions as also the directions contained in the order of this Court dated 7th of January, 2022 passed in WPA(P) 1 of 2022..On January 7, the Calcutta High Court had allowed the West Bengal government to hold the annual Gangasagar Mela, which will be attended by about 5 lakh pilgrims this year.The Court, acting on a public interest litigation (PIL), referred to the Article 21 of the Constitution of India to highlight the responsibility of the State to protect the life and liberty of the people.“In terms of the Article 39(e) it is the responsibility of the State to direct its policy towards securing that the health and strength of workers, men and women and the tender age of children are not abused and Article 39(f) requires the State to give opportunity and facilities to children to develop in healthy manner. Under Article 47 it is the duty of the State to raise the standard of living and to improve public health,” the Bench had observed in its order..Advocate General SN Mookherjee, Government Pleader Anirban Roy, Additional Advocate General Samrat Sen and Advocates Bipin Ghosh, TM Siddiqui, Debashis Ghosh, Nilotpal Chatterjee and Avishek Prasad appeared for the State of West Bengal.Advocates Aniruddha Chatterjee, Rahul Karmakar and Gargi Goswami appeared for the West Bengal Doctor's Forum.Advocates Ritzu Ghoshal, Anirban Ghosh, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi Chatterjee, Akashdeep Mukherjee, Sayan Banerjee, Sandipan Das, Ankur Sharma, Srijib Chakraborty, Aditya Mondal, Suryaneel Das, Anindya Kumar Mitra, Prisanka Ganguly, Abhratosh Majumdar, Subhankar Nag and Biswajit Kumar appeared for the other applicants (IAs)..Gangasagar Mela given the nod, Calcutta High Court asks panel to keep an eye on COVID-19 protocol.[Read order]