Supreme Court seeks Centre's response in PIL filed by law student seeking ban on disinfectant tunnels and chambers

The Supreme Court today issued notice in a PIL seeking an immediate ban on the use, installation, production or advertisement of disinfectant tunnels set up to curb the spread of COVID-19 (Gursimran Singh Narula v. Union of India)..The Bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy, and MR Shah issued notice to the Centre in the PIL filed by law student Gursimran Singh Narula. The plea argues that the chemical disinfectants sprayed on humans in these disinfectant chambers and tunnels have an adverse impact..The final year student from Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur, argued in person before the Supreme Court today. Narula told the Court that these disinfectants, that are said to prevent the spread of COVID-19, are in fact ineffective and expose people to harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays. The petition states,.“In the guise of preventing COVID-19 many sanitization and disinfection devices have emerged which wrongfully claim to be effective in preventing the spread of this virus. These include disinfection tunnels involving spraying and fumigation of disinfectants and disinfection tunnels exposing human beings to ultra violet rays with a belief of disinfecting them.”.The petitioner places reliance on the advisories issued by bodies such as the World Health Organization (WHO), which itself has warned against the dangerous after-effects of being exposed to UV rays in these disinfectants. The petitioner claims that the WHO’s reports and advisories suggest that exposure to such harmful UV rays may cause physiological and psychological damage to people..Narula had approached the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on two occasions in the past. However, the advisory issued by the Ministry in April did not address the issue of the use of such disinfectant chambers and tunnels. In fact, advisories promoting use of such chemical disinfectants were issued subsequently by two bodies, the plea says..“Press release issued by Pune-based Council of Scientific & Industrial Research-National Chemical Laboratory (CSIR-NCL) and the Mumbai-based Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) on 23.04.2020 asserted the effectiveness of spraying of disinfectants on human beings expressly cast doubt on scientific value of advisory issued by Health authorities.”.These press releases go against the findings of various studies, the petition says. It points out the conclusions of studies which debunk the belief that no health impact is caused from exposure to chemical disinfectants..In light of this, the petitioner has sought the intervention of the Supreme Court in order to protect the right to life of people under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. It has been prayed that the Court issue a direction to ban the usage, installation, production, advertisement of disinfection tunnels involving spraying or fumigation of chemical/organic disinfectants and exposing human beings to ultraviolet rays..Read Petition:.Read Order: