Taking a serious note of violations of lockdown regulations by political figures and elected representatives, the Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the State government to take strict action against them.
“The State must ensure that strict action is taken against everyone violating lockdown regulations, especially political figures and elected representatives. It will send a wrong signal if no action is initiated against them,” the court said, pointing out that some sections of society have thrown the norms to the wind.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Nataraj Rangaswamy issued the direction while admitting a PIL petition filed by the city-based Letzkit Foundation. The petitioner had produced records of violations of lockdwon regulations such as not wearing masks and not maintaining social distance by people, including political leaders. Also, the Bench directed the government to set up within a week a Grievance Redressal Mechanism to enable the citizens to lodge complaints about violation of lockdown regulations through e-mails, WhatsApp messages, SMS and to send photos of instances of such violations.
