The Madras High Court on Thursday directed the Vellore Collector to ensure that poor north Indians, who had visited Christian Medical College (CMC) for treatment of various ailments but could not return to their natives due to lockdown, are not forced to vacate private lodges in the town due to their inability to pay rent.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and M. Nirmal Kumar made it clear that their interim order shall be in operation till May 7 and directed public interest litigant D.W. Karuna Miriyam to implead the lodge owners’ association also as one of the parties to the case.
In his affidavit, the petitioner claimed that hundreds of people from north and northeastern part of the country visit the CMC regularly. Many of them were now stranded in Vellore town due to the lockdown. The Vellore district administration had prohibited private lodges from evicting them.
Then, it was also ordered that the guests need not pay any rent. However, in a sudden turn of events, the district administration on April 17 issued yet another proceedings calling upon the guests to pay 50% of the rent. The proceedings also stated that the rest of the 50% would be borne equally by lodge owners and the district administration.
When the judges wanted to know why such proceedings were issued, State Government Pleader V. Jayaprakash Narayanan told the court that the government was also under huge financial stress as it had to attend to the needs of a large number of people.
On the other hand, the petitioner said that the people in the lodges were poor and could not afford payment of rent. Hence, he sought a direction to the government to provide them food, shelter, medical assistance and arrangements for travelling back to their natives.
