Why no nationwide guidelines against affixing posters outside houses of Covid-19 patients? SC asks Centre

The plea said that the practice was in violation of rights to privacy and to live with dignity

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre why no nationwide guidelines were put in place to do away with practice of pasting posters outside homes of Covid-19 patients.

A bench of Justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and M R Shah asked advocate Kush Kalra, who filed the PIL for banning the practice which was in violation of rights to privacy and to live with dignity, to furnish a copy of petition with Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to enable him respond to it.

The court pointed out the Delhi government already told the High Court that will not be putting posters outside Covid-19 patients' homes

Kalra asked the court to quash the decision taken by various States and UTs and its authorities set up under the National Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 to affix posters outside residences of persons who are Covid-19 positive and are required to stay in home isolation. He also sought a direction that the names of Covid-19 patients were not circulated in WhatsApp group of Residents Welfare Associations.

The petitioner claimed that the Covid-19 patients ought to be given privacy to cope with and recover from the illness in peace away from the prying eyes.

He said the practice of pasting a notice outside the house of infected persons made them unnecessarily centre of attention. He also claimed it also desisted the general public from going for test to ascertain the affliction of the disease.