BENGALURU: The Karnataka High Court on Monday clarified that neither the Central government nor the state government and their departments should deny benefits to citizens for not downloading the Arogya Setu App on their cellphones. A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Ashok S Kinagi clarified this during the hearing of a public interest litigation filed by Anivar A Anand, alleging that the Department of Personnel and Training, Central government, has mandated compulsory downloading of the app for its personnel.
The bench issued the clarification after a senior counsel representing the petitioner objected to the time sought once again by the Union government to file its response to the petition, though already an opportunity had been given.
In a lighter vein, the bench asked the Union government’s counsel how can people download the app as even today many people don’t have cellphones. “Therefore, clarify that no authority should deny benefits,” the bench told the counsel.The Central government’s counsel orally submitted that the National Executive Committee under the Disaster Management Act already made it clear that downloading of the app is not mandatory.