Chennai resident has moved the Madras high court seeking to declare the total lockdown announced by the Tamil Nadu government in five corporations as unlawful and unconstitutional and quash the same.
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CITYPlea in Madras high court seeks to declare total lockdown in Chennai, four other TN cities as unlawful
Sureshkumar | TNN | Apr 25, 2020, 19:26 IST
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The crowd at a market in Chennai on Saturday. Photo by R Ramesh ShankarCHENNAI: A Chennai resident has moved the Madras high court seeking to declare the total lockdown announced by the Tamil Nadu government in five corporations as unlawful and unconstitutional and quash the same.
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K Manivannan, a resident of Choolaimedu, has sought the relief on the ground that the sudden announcement has caused panic among the public, besides increase in prices of vegetables and other essential commodities. This apart, the total lockdown which has been announced to completely restrict movement of people resulted in large scale violation of social distancing.
The state government on Friday announced total lockdown for four days in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai corporations and for three days in Salem and Tirupur corporations.
It was informed that grocery sops, bakeries and other entities which were permitted to remain open during lockdown would also be closed and essential commodities would be supplied through vending carts permitted by corporations. All government, banks and other essential services would be allowed to function with minimum staff, the order said.
According to the petitioner, a day after the announcement on April 25, all the five corporations witnessed large gathering of people to stock up essential commodities and vegetables in complete violation of social distancing.
“Only because of the sudden announcement that the public has thronged markets to purchase essential items. When restriction under Section 144 of the CrPC is already in force across the state, this sudden announcement of complete lockdown in select cities has raised suspicion among public,” the petitioner said.
Adding that such further restriction would cause great difficulties, inconveniences affecting the livelihood and survival of public, the petitioner said that such announcement is not constitutionally valid.
The plea, filed as a public interest litigation, is likely to be taken up for hearing on Monday.
