oppn parties Courts Order Lockdowns: Judicial Activism?

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  • Allahabad HC said that the UP Police is acting as law unto themselves as they detained a person unlawfully even before his arrest
  • Kolkata witnesses traffic snarls on the first day of the Durga Puja festival as revellers start pnadal-hopping
  • Neha Bora was subsequently released and Dipke is to appear before a magistrate today at noon
  • Delhi Police detained Cockroach Janta Party founder Abhijeet Dipke, Neha Bora of AISA, student leaders and supporters ahead of a rally in Connaught Place demanding Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar's resignation. The protest followed the detention and jailing of two CJP leaders earlier in the week over demonstrations at Jantar Mantar
  • The Reserve Bank of India is considering further monetary tightening to counter capital outflows and increase the cost of betting against the rupee, according to bankers and analysts cited by Reuters. The measures follow recent rate increases and steps to drain liquidity as pressure on the currency and inflation concerns persist
  • India directed oil marketing companies to stop diverting sugar-based feedstocks for ethanol production in the 2026–27 supply year, according to a new tender issued on Friday. The companies have invited bids for 11 billion litres of ethanol made from alternatives including corn and broken rice, amid concerns about domestic sugar supplies and prices
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India's trade imbalance with China was growing sharply and attributed the problem partly to restrictions on Indian goods and services entering the Chinese market. China subsequently said it was ready to work with India to address mutual economic and trade concerns; India's trade deficit with China reached $69 billion in the first half of FY2026–27, up 27% year-on-year
  • Indian equity benchmarks extended their recovery on Friday, with the Sensex rising 413.66 points to close at 74,729.27 and the Nifty 50 gaining 148.80 points to settle at 23,146.15. Information technology shares, including Tech Mahindra, Infosys and TCS, helped lift the indices
  • India defeated Zimbabwe by four wickets in the opening women's T20 International in Raipur, taking a 1–0 lead in the three-match series. Deepti Sharma and Niki Prasad combined in an 82-run stand after India's top order collapsed, helping the hosts chase down Zimbabwe's total of 114 for five
  • Indian wrestler Komal won bronze in the women's 59 kg category at the Under-23 World Wrestling Championships in Las Vegas, defeating Kazakhstan's Viktoriia Khusainova 7–2. Fellow Indian Amruta Pujari advanced to the women's 72 kg final after recording two pinfall victories
  • Indian shuttler Jagsher Singh Khangurra secured a bronze medal at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships in Cairo
  • The Supreme Court of India upheld the Bombay High Court's decision quashing the 2020 write-off of ₹8,415 crore in additional tier-1 bonds issued by Yes Bank (Yes Bank). The court ruled that the bank's administrator lacked the authority to extinguish the bonds under the final reconstruction scheme, strengthening bondholders' claims
  • The Supreme Court issued notices to the Election Commission of India, Delhi Police and opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav, in separate petitions concerning electoral-roll revision and protests held in Delhi on October 10–12. The court also directed the preservation of CCTV footage linked to allegations of police excesses
  • The Supreme Court ruled that a person converting from Hinduism to Islam cannot automatically claim backward-class reservation benefits in the new religious community solely on the basis of their previous caste status. The judgment upheld the Madras High Court's decision striking down a 2024 Tamil Nadu government order that permitted such certification for specified communities
  • The Election Commission of India ordered a Special Summary Revision of electoral rolls in 14 states and three Union Territories, using January 1, 2027, as the qualifying date for voter eligibility. The draft rolls are scheduled for publication on November 12, claims and objections will be accepted until December 11, and the final rolls are due on January 4, 2027
Delhi HC refuses to ban CJP's Tiranga rally at Central Park in Connaught Place today /////// Police says will control and regulate it /////// NDMC closes the park for the public on Friday and Saturday
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Courts Order Lockdowns: Judicial Activism?

By Sunil Garodia
First publised on 2021-04-19 15:27:07

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Editor-in-Chief of indiacommentary.com. Current Affairs analyst and political commentator. Author of Cyber Scams in India, Digital Arrest, The Money Trap and The Human Hack

The judiciary today came down heavily on two state governments for their handling of the Covid situation. While the Allahabad High Court went all the way and asked the UP government to lock down 5 cities in the state for 6 days beginning tonight, the Telangana High Court gave a 48-hour ultimatum to the state government to decide on curfews or lockdown before it took a decision.

The Allahabad High Court said that the UP government's handling of the Covid situation left a lot to be desired and in view of the surging cases in the state, it directed the government to impose lockdown (while permitting essential services to function normally, but ordering that all hawkers go off the streets after 11 am) in five cities - Lucknow, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur - from 10 pm tonight till 6 am on Monday, April 26. Stating that it had to save lives and livelihood, the state government has, as of now, decided not to impose the lockdown. It has said that it will take a considered decision in the matter as early as possible.

The Telengana High Court, on the other hand, asked the state government to take a decision regarding imposing curfew or lockdown and other restrictions in the state in view of the alarming surge in coronavirus cases. It has warned the government that if it does not get an 'action taken' report within 48 hours, it will be constrained to issue orders.

While the executive will consider this as the judiciary trespassing in its domain, the crux of the matter is that with the virus spreading at an alarming speed, governments in all states are guilty of laxity and prevarication. Their response to the second wave, as also of the Centre, has been arbitrary and extremely slow. State governments have only recently started enforcing the Covid health protocols (liking fining people for not wearing masks) when it was known from March-end that the public needed to be disciplined. There is no doubt that we need to protect livelihood of people and lockdown are huge disrupters of economic activity, but the point is that if administrations all over India had imposed basic restriction and were strict from March, perhaps the need for lockdowns would not have arisen.

If courts are ordering lockdowns now, it is only because they see lakhs of infected persons and piling dead bodies. They also see that things are getting out of hand and neither the Centre nor the state governments have disclosed a strong and coordinated programme to control the situation. Can one fault them for this?

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