A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed all the political parties and other organisations in the state to strictly abide by the Central government's COVID-19 guidelines issued for the Unlock-2 period, which prohibits social, political, religious and other large congregations.
The Bench led Chief Justice S. Manikumar also directed the State government to ensure that the Centre government guidelines issued on June 29 are implemented strictly in the state.
The directives were issued when public interest litigation seeking to ban demonstrations, dharnas and other protests meetings involving large number of persons organised by political parties and others in the state came up for hearing.
The Centre government guidelines issued on June 29 under Unlock 2.0 had allowed certain activities in a calibrated manner in areas outside the containment zones while extending the lockdown in the containment zones till July 31. However, the Centre's order disallowed certain other activities including reopening of educational institutions, cinemas, gymnasium, auditorium, assembly halls ,bars, operation of metro rail services and social, political/sports/entertainment/academic/cultural/religious functions and other large congregations.
The court while hearing arguments on the petition had yesterday directed all the political parties to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines issued by the State and Central governments while organising dharnas, demonstrations and protest meetings.
