Kerala HC seeks state govt's response on level of preparedness to deal with Gulf expats

After the Kerala Government announced its decision to bring back around two lakh expatriates, mainly blue-collar workers, from Gulf countries after the lifting of the lockdown, the Kerala High Court on Friday sought a statement on record from the state government on its level of preparedness to deal with the returnees. Officials have reportedly said that after bringing them back, the state will face a huge challenge since over half of the total COVID-19 cases in Kerala have been traced to those who had returned from the region.

A Division Bench of Justice Devan Ramachandran and TR Ravi sought the response on a petition seeking repatriation for Keralites from Gulf countries and slated the matter for May 2.

Read: Kerala To Bring Back 2 Lakh Expatriates From West Asia Post Lockdown

"What the UK or the US does is not applicable to India. We cannot compel the Union government to violate lockdown without Kerala's preparedness on record. We are afraid that as matters now stand, it may not be proper or possible to issue a direction to Union government to repatriate citizens since the Supreme Court appears to have taken a stand against it already," the court said.

Read: Kerala CM Seeks PM's Intervention To Bring Bodies Of Non-COVID NRKs From Gulf

The Kerala High Court also directed the state government to disclose if it intends to dilute the Centre's lockdown guidelines in any manner. This comes shortly after the Kerala government had allowed the opening of restaurants, bus travel in cities and MSME industries in urban areas, but later withdrew the relaxations after the MHA stated that these relaxations “amount to dilution of lockdown guidelines” imposed by the Centre to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus.

Advocate Thulsi K Raj, appearing for the petitioner, said that "no one is questioning the necessity of lockdown. But Centre's policy is disproportionately affecting a section of people", to which the court replied saying "We understands that this is a human issue, but there are people stranded in India as well."

(with inputs from ANI)

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