Covid-19: Delhi HC pulls up Haryana for not disclosing full details on movement restrictions

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Tuesday pulled up the

Haryana government

for not disclosing all the notifications putting restrictions on the movement of people, including doctors and nurses, to and from the national capital to various districts in Haryana during the

Covid-19 lockdown

.


A bench of justices Manmohan and

Sanjeev Narula

, which conducted the hearing through video conferencing, said prima facie the screening and stopping of individuals involved in essential services at the Delhi-Haryana border by the state of Haryana is contrary to May 11 letter issued by the Centre to all the chief secretaries of the states.

The Centre in its May 11 order asked all state governments and union territories to ensure that their field officials allow smooth movement of all medical professionals, nurses, para medical, sanitation personnel and ambulances.

The Centre also asked them to ensure the opening of all private clinics, nursing homes and labs with all their medical professionals and staff and such movement shall also be facilitated inter-State, wherever required.

The Centre's counsel urged the court to grant a day's time to resolve the issue with the Haryana government.

The bench allowed the request and asked the Centre to file a reply by Wednesday to a plea which said that a number of Delhi residents have to travel to Sonipat for essential work and similar is the situation for Sonipat residents and they are being stopped by the Haryana authorities at the borders.

Petitioner OP Gupta said the district magistrate of Sonipat has imposed blanket cross border transit restrictions between the two cities and granted exemptions to only a few categories of government officials and for movement of goods not destined for there.

The court listed the matter for May 14 and made it clear that no adjournment would be granted on that day and an endeavour would be made to dispose of the matter on the said date.

During the hearing, the court noted that in the detailed affidavit filed by Haryana government, there was nothing to suggest that any written order restricting movement of people or goods to and fro between Delhi and Haryana has been passed by any official of the neighbouring state regarding any district other than Sonipat.

The court noted that it was categorically stated in the affidavit that the Haryana government has not issued any direction for blocking/ sealing the borders with Delhi or stopping the movement of trucks between the national capital and Haryana as has been alleged in the petition.

It is also stated that Haryana has not issued any order to create hurdles or restrictions for residents of Faridabad, Gurugram, Bahadurgarh and Sonipat who are employed in Delhi.

However, when the court queried Haryana's counsel, he said that similar notifications, as issued by the Sonipat DM on restriction on movement, have also been issued by the district magistrates of Faridabad, Gurugram and Jhajjar.

We are of the view that the state of Haryana should not have been economical with facts. It is a well-settled proposition of law that a party to a writ petition must be held to a standard of 'uberrima fides' or 'utmost good faith'.

Consequently, the state of Haryana was obliged in law to disclose all similar notifications/orders issued by district magistrates of Faridabad, Gurugram and Jhajjar,� the bench said.

It directed the Haryana government to place on record all such similar notifications/orders along with a status report during the day itself.

The court had on May 8 said the order of Haryana authorities preventing and obstructing the movement doctors, nurses, court staff and trucks to and from Delhi to Sonipat prima facie infringed right to freedom of movement even when the entire national capital and Sonipat are not coronavirus containment zones.

It had said it was of prima facie view that the action of the district magistrate, Sonipat, restricting the movement, is contrary to the orders and letters issued by the Union home secretary on lockdown guidelines.

The petitioner, in his plea, has said that that even doctors, nurses and court officials, who either reside in Sonipat or work there are being prevented from entering or leaving the city.

As per the April 30 order of the district magistrate, accommodation arrangements for persons working in Sonipat but residents of Delhi or UP shall have to be made by the concerned management at Sonipat so as to preclude any daily cross-border transit.

The DM order further stated that those persons who are working in Delhi or UP but are residents of Sonipat shall pursue similar accommodation arrangements with their concerned management in areas of their work so as to preclude any daily cross-border transit.

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