NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said that the guidelines issued by central and Delhi governments regarding quarantine of passengers coming from the United Kingdom were “contradictory”.
The high court also directed that a family of four, sent to seven-day institutional quarantine after returning from the UK despite testing negative for Covid-19, be sent to home quarantine for seven days.
Justice Prathiba M Singh issued the direction saying there was “no clarity” in the notifications which were “contradictory” for people coming from the UK. The court also directed the Delhi government to instruct the IGI airport to prominently display on its website the standard operating procedures (SOP) so that no confusion is caused to travellers.
The central government said its guidelines only mandate 14-days home quarantine for travellers from the UK if they test negative and institutional quarantine is not advised. The Delhi government, however, said there was a January 29 central government SOP which stated that all passengers sitting close to a traveller who tested positive for Covid-19 have to be sent to institutional quarantine.
The court said, “All these notifications are contradictory and there is no clarity as to which are applicable. There is no clarity whether the January 29 SOP continues to be in operation in view of the stand of the central government.”“Since there is no clarity about the SOP and the petitioners include two minor children below the age of 10 years, they shall remain in home quarantine instead of institutional quarantine. They shall strictly adhere to the quarantine norms.”
Advocate Ganesh Chand Sharma, appearing for the family, had on Tuesday told the court that all the members were tested for Covid-19 when they arrived here from the UK on February 20 and despite testing negative they were “illegally and unlawfully” sent to institutional quarantine. He had also told the court that according to the guidelines published on the Delhi airport website, institutional quarantine was not mandatory for all the passengers arriving from the UK and was applicable only to those who tested positive for Covid-19.