Supreme Court pulls up Noida District Magistrate for not following UP and National Guidelines on COVID-19 Quarantine Protocol

A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Ashok Bhushan today pulled up the District Magistrate of Gautam Buddha Nagar, Suhas LY for not following the national guidelines on the COVID 19 quarantine protocol. (Rohit Bhalla versus Union of India)..The bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and MR Shah were hearing a plea relating to the easing of interstate transport between Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh..Solicitor General Tushar Mehta submitted that as directed by the Court, the Chief Secretaries of all three states and the Union Home Secretary had a meeting on June 9, where it was conveyed that there would be no restriction on Delhi-Haryana route, but Delhi-UP border still needed to be manned..Advocate Garima Prashad for the State of UP citing differences in population structure and the way of handling the COVID-19 cases submitted that though there was home quarantine rules in Delhi, but Noida and Ghaziabad followed only institutional quarantine..To this Justice Bhushan asked what if the patient was asymptomatic? The national guidelines say home quarantine for asymptomatic people.."You need to find out information if Noida (under Gautam Buddhnagar district) District Magistrate has issued orders contrary to national guidelines regarding home or institutional quarantine. After 15 days there will be chaos," said Justice Bhushan..Justice Bhushan pulling up the Noida DM, further stated that "DM Noida has issued different instructions contrary to the one issued by State of UP. Though essential services are allowed but DM orders are not in conformity with the guidelines issued by state of UP. He is bound to follow national and state guidelines.".Justice MR Shah too urged the Solicitor General to ensure that states "do not violate the national guidelines.".Advocate Prashad stated that UP had 400 recoveries and 40 deaths, compared to that Delhi had 1000 deaths.."Delhi has home quarantine whereas we have only institutional quarantine. They have population over 4 crores whereas UP is in lakhs. Taking this stark difference, we are allowing doctors, advocates media, and others on e-pass basis to cross the borders," said Advocate Prashad..On June 4, Justice Bhushan, heading the Bench, said that there has been a recommendation, which suggests that a common pass for the entire NCR region should be recognized in all the States involved..The petitioner was represented by Senior Counsel Mukul Talwar and Centre was represented by SG Tushar Mehta..State of Uttar Pradesh was represented by Advocate Garima Prashad while AAG Anil Grover appeared for the State of Haryana..[READ ORDER]