Observing that prima facie, voluntary organisations cannot be prevented from distributing food to the weaker sections of society if they follow the norms of social distancing and take other precautions during the lockdown, the High Court of Karnataka has directed the government to issue a directive to Deputy Commissioners in this regard.
The court passed the order after taking note of an application, filed by Know Your Rights Association, an NGO, pointing out that the DC of Kalaburagi had, on March 30, issued an order indicating that organisations distributing food to beggars and the homeless were directly violating the prohibitory orders. The DC had stated that food cannot be distributed without obtaining permission from the authorities.
The association sought modifications of DC’s order to allow private individuals, voluntary organisations and NGOs to work on supplying food to the underprivileged. It was also pointed out that a similar order was issued by the DC of Dharwad.
A special Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice B.V. Nagarathna issued the order on Monday while hearing, through videoconferencing, PIL petitions related issues that have arisen because of the COVID-19 lockdown.
The Bench reminded the government about its March 30 order, in which the court had advised it to set up a portal for NGOs to upload information on their geographical area of operation and the nature of relief measures provided by them during the lockdown. The idea is to utilise and streamline the relief operations undertaken by NGOs.
“If the State government is unable to provide a portal where all the NGOs can upload their information, the State must consider convening meetings at the district level, municipal level etc. via videoconferencing for coordinating the activities of NGOs,” the Bench said.
Paralegal volunteers
A report submitted to the court by the member-secretary of the Bengaluru Urban District Legal Services Authority (DLSA) pointed out that the police authorities in Bengaluru city were showing ignorance about the existence of DSLAs, and some of its paralegal volunteers, playing a proactive role to help those in need during the lockdown, were being abused verbally.
Following this, the High Court Bench directed the State authorities to provide passes to all DLSAs for supply to paralegal volunteers. The Bench also directed the State police chief to consider issuing guidelines for the police to allow paralegal volunteers to do their work on the production of such passes.
