Allahabad HC orders release of Jamaatis who completed quarantine

The Allahabad High Court has ordered the Yogi Adityanath government to immediately release the members of the Tablighi Jamaat and others who have completed their period of quarantine.

A division bench of Justice Shashikant Gupta and Justice Saurabh Shyam Shamshery delivered the order on Monday on a PIL filed by Supreme Court lawyer Shaad Anwar.

The petition had requested the High Court to issue directions to the Uttar Pradesh government since the fundamental rights of a group of individuals were being violated by the government.

In its order, the High Court considered it a violation of Article 21 of the Indian Constitution that provides that no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure established by law. The court said that in such  a situation, it had every right to intervene.

The court directed the state government to immediately release those Tablighi Jamaat members who had completed their period of quarantine and had tested negative.

The court also ordered the setting up of a three-member committee to monitor the cases of quarantined persons in the districts.

The committee is expected to ensure the release and arrange for the return of persons from quarantine centres to their homes after the completion of their terms.

The committee will also hear and redress the grievances of those living in the state-run quarantine centres.

Issuing the orders to the state Chief Secretary the court has asked him to issue a circular in this regard.

Meanwhile, according to the state government's affidavit presented in the court by the state Additional Advocate General Manish Goyal, there were 3,001 Indian and 325 foreign Tablighi Jamaat members in the state's quarantine centres.

Of these 21 Indian and 279 foreigners had been arrested and sent to jail under various charges.

The state government said that 2,979 Indian and 46 foreign nationals were released from the quarantine centres after they completed their quarantine and none were in such centres.