KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday directed Karnataka and its officials to ensure that people facing dire emergencies such as a death in the family, medical treatment etc are permitted to enter the state on the production of necessary documents to establish the respective case, irrespective of the nature of the vehicles used for the purpose.
A division bench comprising Justice Shaji P Chaly and Justice A Badharudeen issued the interim directive on a petition filed by Manjeshwar MLA AKM Ashraf seeking a directive to ensure free inter-state travel between Kerala and Karnataka, especially for daily commuters to and from Manjeshwar and Dakshin Kannada districts in light of the latest order of the Ministry of Home Affairs.
The petitioner submitted that Karnataka has created a blockade on the borders of Kasargod and Mangalore, which has meant that people from Kerala are unable to enter the state even during emergencies. All passengers crossing its border need to possess a negative RT-PCR certificate taken within 72 hours. Even those who had taken two doses of the vaccine had to show the negative test result. The action of the Karnataka government in preventing Keralites from entering the state was totally illegal and violative of fundamental rights guaranteed to the citizens under the Constitution of India.
Advocate General of Karnataka Prabhuling K Navadgi objected to the petition and submitted that a revised circular had been issued to regulate the entry of the people from Kerala in view of the present Covid pandemic situation in Kerala and the high percentage of Covid-19 patients in the Dakshin Kannada district of Karnataka. In fact, the government through the circular dated July 31 had adequately addressed the issue of emergency cases.
The circular made it clear that certain categories of people were exempted from possessing negative RT PCR certificates which includes students and the public visiting Karnataka daily for education, business and other purposes on certain conditions. That apart, constitutional functionaries, health care professionals, children below two years and those facing emergency situations like death in the family and medical treatment also came under the exemption categories.
The AG also informed that the Karnataka High Court passed an order on Tuesday directing the government to strictly implement the revised circular. Therefore, if any directions were issued at this stage, it would be in conflict with the directions issued by the Karnataka High Court. He added that since the blockade created by Karnataka has been challenged, there would not be territorial jurisdiction for this court to entertain the writ petition.
The court directed the Karnataka government to file a statement on August 25.