SC issues notice to Centre to evacuate 850 Shia pilgrims from coronavirus-struck Iran

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Centre on a plea for immediate evacuation of around 850 Indian Shia pilgrims from city of Qom, the Iranian epicenter of coronavirus spread.

After conducting a hearing through video-conferencing, a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and Surya Kant sought a reply from the Union government on a petition filed by Mustafa M H, a resident of Ladakh.

The court also ordered providing appropriate health and medical facilities and accommodation to the stranded 850 indians till such time the Centre was in a position to evacuate them safely to India.

The petitioner apprehended that there may be as many as 250 people within the group of the pilgrims who could be coronavirus-positive.

The matter would now be taken up on March 30, Monday.

Mustafa's three relatives have been stranded over there.

Senior advocate Sanjay Hedge argued for Mustafa through video conferencing.

The city of Qom is considered holy by Shia Muslims and is the world’s leading centre of Shia scholarship. Much like Wuhan in China, Qom has become the Iranian epicentre of the viral outbreak.

Iran has reported over 30,000 infections and over 2,000 deaths.

There are over 6,000 Indian nationals spread across the provinces of the vast West Asian nation which has emerged as the third-most impacted country after China and Italy.

“About 800 odd Indian citizens are stuck in the city of Qom and are in need of immediate help. In case, urgent help is not provided to these pilgrims, there are bound to be serious health hazards, which have started to become fatal and has resulted in the death of two of them already”, the petition said.

It further said those stranded were pilgrims, mostly from a poor financial background, who had travelled to Iran and were scheduled to return weeks back. However, in view of the situation, they are stranded without any health or medical facilities and food supplies.

Besides, they have been accommodated in hotel rooms in groups of four-five. In such a situation, accommodating persons together was a serious health hazard and could lead to disastrous consequences for them.