Take a call on night curfew in 48 hours or we will pass orders, says HC

Bench headed by CJ takes objection to failure of government to comply with earlier orders

Telangana High Court on Monday asked the State government to take a call on imposing night curfew or weekend lockdowns to check spread of COVID-19. Observing that the courts were “bound by the interest of public”, the HC told the government that it would be compelled to pass directions if the government did not take a call on the matter in next 48 hours. “You do whatever you can do... We will do what you cannot do...” Chief Justice Hima Kohli told Advocate General B.S. Prasad appearing for State. Taking strong exception to the government’s inadequate response to its directions on managing and curtailing COVID-19, the HC instructed the Health Secretary and Director General of Police to appear during next date of hearing. A bench of CJ and Justice B. Vijaysen Reddy, hearing a batch of PIL petitions on COVID-19 related issues, noting that the “government’s monitoring was not enough”. “You (government) cannot afford to say monitoring when numbers of people testing positive for the virus were shooting up the ceiling,” the CJ remarked.