COVID-19: Stay where you are, Supreme Court to the citizens on evacuation
Deciding on the citizen’s plea of evacuating, the Supreme Court observed that Indian citizens stranded in various countries due to the Covid-19 pandemic should "stay where they are."
Also, the Centre said it would not be feasible to "selectively evacuate" those who want to return due to various reasons.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde said this while hearing through video-conferencing a batch of pleas seeking evacuation of Indian citizens from different countries including the United Kingdom and Gulf nations.
"People should stay where they are right now," said the bench, also comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and M M Shantanagoudar.
In its affidavit filed on a plea seeking evacuation of Indian students stranded in the UK, the Centre has given details of the steps taken by the concerned authorities including the Indian High Commission at London to assist Indians there.
Detailing the Centre's position regarding evacuation of Indians from abroad amid coronavirus or Covid-19, the affidavit said the country has a very large Indian community abroad including NRIs and Indian students in foreign countries.
"It is true that the GoI (Government of India) initially undertook some evacuation operations of Indian nationals as also nationals of other countries from China, Japan, Iran and Italy when the situation of coronavirus in India was not so grim. Many of the persons evacuated from these countries were then brought and subjected to quarantine in India," the affidavit said.
"However, given the present situation of the coronavirus outbreak in India and the available limited resources, it is not feasible to selectively evacuate Indian citizens from abroad when a large number of them from a number of countries want to return back due to various reasons," it said.
The Centre said that the severe risk posed by arrivals from an increasing number of countries affected by Covid-19 is something that the government is seeking to minimize.
"The approach of the government has, therefore, been to advise the Indian nationals to stay put where they are in line with the government's approach to contain the further spread of the virus within India and allowing health machinery to focus on domestic containment effectively," it said.
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