SC stays Allahabad High Court order to clamp lockdown in 5 cities of UP

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today stayed an Allahabad High Court directive to Uttar Pradesh government to impose lockdown in five major cities in the state.

The city where the high court had directed lockdown include Prayagraj, Lucknow, Varanasi, Kanpur and Gorakhpur till April 26.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde stayed the high court order on an urgent mentioning made by solicitor general Tushar Mehta.

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Mehta argued that the blanket lockdown would lead to an administrative chaos and that the UP government was taking appropriate steps to contain the COVID-19 situation in the state.

The high court had passed the order on the basis of a suo moto PIL, after observing that the state government was not taking adequate steps to deal with the situation. A division bench of Justices Siddhartha Varma and Ajit Kumar has observed that a lockdown was essential to arrest the detoriating situation in the major cities.

The UP government refused to clamp lockdown though.