The Supreme Court on Friday disposed of a plea highlighting the hardships faced by North East amidst COVID-19 after the Government assured that they would ‘take care’ of the situation.
The plea was heard by a Bench comprising of Justices Ashok Bhushan, SK Kaul and BR Gavai. Appearing for the petitioner, Senior Advocate Colin Gonsalves pointed to the court the adversities faced by people from the North-East during the lockdown. He further submitted that the most worrisome issue being that a number of them were asked to vacate their rooms and consequently have nowhere to go.
Taking note of the submissions made in the plea, Justice Bhushan stated, “the petition says North-Eastern people are facing difficulties as others mistook them to be Chinese.”
While Solicitor General Tushar Mehta informed the Bench that there were Helplines specifically to redress such grievances, Gonsalves in his reply pointed out, “All those Helplines are dead”.
Suggesting that it is important to spread more awareness amongst people so they do not mistreat anyone during the lockdown Justice Kaul observed, “There should be awareness. When people are locked in, there are difficulties that arise. However, something needs to be done
The Solicitor went on to assure the Bench that the Government would look into the issue and take care. With this assurance given by the Solicitor that the government would take care of the issue, the court decided that was appropriate to not interfere and thus disposed of the matter.
Justice Bhushan stated, “The SG assures us to take care of all points mentioned in the petition. We dispose of the petition.”
