NEW DELHI: The Disaster Management Authority (DMA) has prohibited public gatherings, including for festival celebrations and protests, in view of the surge in Covid-19 cases, the AAP government told the Delhi High Court on Wednesday.
The submission was made during the hearing of pleas by AAP MLAs Raghav Chadha and Atishi Marlena seeking permission to stage protests outside the residences of Home Minister Amit Shah and Lt Governor Anil Baijal. Additional standing counsel of Delhi government Gautam Narayan told the court that the Delhi DMA or DDMA has issued an order on March 23 prohibiting all public gatherings in the national capital.
The court asked the lawyers for the two MLAs whether they were still pressing their pleas challenging the denial of permission to protest. The lawyers for the two MLAs said there have been some subsequent developments and therefore, they wanted to file some fresh affidavit. When the court asked the Delhi government what was the current situation regarding public gatherings, Narayan said the DDMA’s March 23 order prohibits the same due to the rise in cases.
The AAP government had in January told the court that Raghav and Atishi cannot protest outside the homes of Shah and Baijal as political gatherings were prohibited by the DDMA till January 31. On December 18 last year, the police told the court that permissions were denied to the two AAP MLAs on the basis of orders passed by DDMA.
It had also said that in accordance with a Supreme Court order, it has issued an order prohibiting protests in residential areas. Both AAP MLAs wanted to stage ‘dharnas’ to protest against the alleged misappropriation of funds by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, but they were denied permission.