The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed petitioner, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, to withdraw his plea to direct the government to develop a “standard Yoga protocol” to enhance COVID-19 resistance.
Mr. Upadhyay bowed out after a Bench headed by Justice Ashok Bhushan asked him to approach the government instead of the court.
“After making submissions for some time, learned counsel for the petitioner seeks permission to withdraw the petition to enable him to approach the competent authorities. The writ petition is dismissed as withdrawn,” said the Bench, also comprising Justices R. Subhash Reddy and M.R. Shah, conducting the hearing via videoconferencing.
The petition said the Ministry of AYUSH should broadcast yoga protocols for strengthening the immunity system. “The injury caused to the public is very large because the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading rapidly and no vaccine or medicine has been discovered till date,” it said.
Common diseases
It said the Ministry had not developed customised protocols to control diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases, tumours, digestive diseases, fever and infections and diarrhoeal diseases.
The PIL also sought directions to the Ministry of Human Resource Development to develop standard textbooks on ‘Environment, Health and Yoga Science’ for students of I-VIII standards and make its study compulsory throughout the country.
