COVID-19 spike: Gujarat HC suggests lockdown for short period

The Gujarat High Court on Tuesday said the COVID-19 situation in the state was getting "out of control", and suggested a curfew or lockdown could be imposed for three to four days to break the infection chain.

Hearing a petition taken up suo motu (on its own) regarding the COVID-19 situation, a division bench of Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Bhargav Karia said such a lockdown or curfew is needed to curb the spread of the virus.

Chief Justice Nath said the COVID-19 situation "is going from bad to worse and getting out of control" in Gujarat, with over 3,000 cases emerging on Monday.

He suggested that all kind of gatherings, including political functions, should be controlled or stopped.

"Urgent and serious steps need to be taken to check this. Otherwise, the COVID-19 situation will go out of hand.

May be three-four days of curfew or lockdown can be imposed to check the situation at the moment," Chief Justice Nath said during an online hearing

Advocate General Kamal Trivedi informed the bench that the state government was in a "Catch-22" situation about the lockdown.

Chief Justice Nath noted that the night curfew, imposed from between 9 pm to 6 am in four major cities of Gujarat, was not proving to be effective.

"You can always open it after three-four days of curfew. But, this curfew will help, I think. Like, initially in March 2020, there was a curfew for two days, three days," Chief Justice Nath said.

To break the chain of the viral infection, Justice Karia also suggested that the government should limit the number of employees coming to offices or commercial establishments "so that less number of people come in contact" with each other.

Trivedi said he will take instructions from the state government and revert.

"Day before yesterday, the government was seriously thinking about imposing a lockdown. But, there were views that a lockdown is likely to cause misery to the poor people," the advocate general said.

"So, the government is in a 'Catch-22' situation. We are trying our level best," he informed the bench.