Hyderabad High Court directs Telangana to decide on curfews, lockdowns to contain Covid

The Hyderabad High Court bench headed by the chief justice Hima Kohli on Monday evening ordered the Telangana government to decide within two days imposing curfews or lockdowns to contain rapidly rising Covid-19 cases across the state.

The court has directed the state government to announce with 48 hours restrictions on footfalls at bars, restaurants, pubs, cinema theatres, marriages, functions, and gatherings, political and religious rallies among others in public places.

The division bench of the High Court said it would order curfews and lockdowns if the Telangana government fails to come out with measures within 48 hours to contain gatherings and footfalls in public places.


The court has directed the state government to immediately establish a task force for Covid-19 and appoint nodal officers from state-level to village level. The court also asked the government to announce the actual details on Covid-19 infected persons, deaths and availability of beds in hospitals through daily bulletins.

Earlier on Monday morning, the court pulled up the Telangana government for inadequate measures to contain footfalls in public places like malls, cinema halls, bars, restaurants, pubs, and wine shops, among others.

The court also sought to know from the Telangana government the measures taken on restricting the public movements through road and rail routes into the state from neighbouring states.

Turning down the argument of the state government that it was following the Centre’s guidelines on Covid-19, the division bench pointed out that the States have powers under the Constitution to formulate own guidelines on the issue.

The high court bench comprising chief justice Hima Kohli and justice B Vijaysen Reddy also wanted to know the measures being contemplated on restricting numbers in bars and pubs or closing them down.

Responding to the response filed by the Telangana government through an affidavit to the Covid-19 related public interest litigations, the court said it was “very unhappy with your affidavit as it does not contain any of the details” on the measures to contain footfalls in public places. Terming the Telangana government’s affidavit as ‘wishy-washy and disappointing’, the division bench advised the government to file a revised affidavit with the details sought by evening.

“It is a desperate situation that requires desperate action,” viewed the court, advising the government to take measures as it has turned into a question of the life and death of people.

The High Court observed that though there were attempts towards checking the movements of international passengers, the measures on containing the inflow of people through road and rail routes were inadequate.

Commenting that Telangana appears to be contending for the top position in Covid-19 cases in India, the high court sought to know if the Telangana government prefers to act on its own or would wait for the court to pass relevant orders.

High Covid cases, deaths:
Telangana on Monday reported one of the highest daily numbers of Covid-19 positive cases of 4,009 and 14 deaths over the last 24 hours. This takes the total number of Covid-19 affected to 3.55 lakh and those succumbed to 1,838 to date.