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2020 Supreme(All) 1365
IN THE HIGH COURT OF ALLAHABAD
Siddhartha Varma, Ajit Kumar, JJ.
In Reference Inhuman Condition at Quarantine Centres and for Providing Better Treatment to Corona Positive and Ors. - Appellants
Vs.
State of U.P. and Ors. - Respondent
Public Interest Litigation (PIL) No. 574 of 2020
Decided On : 07-10-2020
For the Appellant : Gaurav Kumar Gaur, Aditya Singh Parihar, Amitanshu Gour, Arvind Kumar Goswami, Jitendra Kumar, Katyayini, Rahul Sahai, Rishu Mishra, S.P.S. Chauhan, Satyaveer Singh, Shailendra Garg, Sunita Sharma, Swetashwa Agarwal, Uttar Kumar Goswami, Suo Motu, Anurag Khanna, Senior Adv., Apul Misra, B.S. Pandey, Nipun Singh, S.F.A. Naqvi and Apul Mishra
For the Respondents: C.S.Cs., Suresh C. Dwivedi, Dhiraj Singh, Hari Nath Tripathi, Purnendu Kumar Singh, Satyavrat Sahai and Sunil Dutt Kautilya.
Headnote:
Drugs and Cosmetic Act –Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945 –U.P. Urban Planning and Development Act, 1973 – Sections 3, 14, 26 and 26A, 13 – U.P. Municipal Corporation Act, 1959 – Sections 295, 296 –Uttar Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1916 –. Unauthorized encroachment on public land – Issue of unauthorized encroachment on public land i.e. road side public land and other vacant public land has acquired importance in the wake of the wide-spread Covid-19 pandemic as these road side land encroachers have developed markets and are inviting large congregation of men and women which is in total violation of the Covid-19 guidelines. – Besides this, cleaning of road side land, management of parking of the vehicles in commercial areas of the city alongwith rehabilitation of the road side vendors/ street vendors in duly identified vending zones are a few other tasks which have to be accomplished by the various local administrative authorities in these days of the pandemic. – Held, What is needed is the achievement of the objectives under both the Acts and thus there is a requirement of a harmonious construction of the two different sets of provisions under the two Acts of 1959 and 1973 – Court find the provisions to be supplemental to each other – Looking after the activities of removal of unauthorized encroachments and the powers of the development authorities under Section 26-A to Section 26-D are not in any way in derogation to the powers of the Municipal Corporations under Section 295 and 296 and vice versa – Both the authorities, therefore, are required to act in coordination with each. Primarily the duty of Development Authority is to ensure that no road or road side public land in the notified development area under the master plan and under the zonal development plan is encroached upon. – Court accordingly direct the respondent Development Authority, Prayagraj to immediately proceed to remove all unauthorized encroachments from public road and road side land and other public places in Prayagraj with immediate effect. – On the issue of rehabilitation of the road side vendors and street vendors, earlier court had directed the Vending Committee to finalize the pending matter of approval of already identified vending zones. – Order Accordingly
ORDER :
1. Separate counter affidavits filed by Sri A.P. Paul, learned counsel appearing for the Prayagraj Development Authority and Sri Purnendu Kumar Singh, learned counsel appearing for the Union of India be kept on record.
2. As per our last order dated 01.10.2020, learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Ms. Akansha Sharma, Advocate produced before us, a list of eateries from whom undertaking to run their eateries as per the Covid-19 norms has been submitted by the State Authorities. However, these undertakings appear to be only of the district of Prayagraj. The list of undertakings from eateries from all over the State may be produced before us by the next date fixed.
3. So far as the enforcement of our mandamus dated 23.09.2020 with regard to wearing of masks is concerned, learned Additional Advocate General informed us that full efforts were being made to get the people of the State of U.P. to wear masks. However, it has been brought to our notice from the various counsel present in the Court during the hearing of this PIL that 100 per cent masking is yet to take place. For this purpose, we direct the Authorities at the helm of affairs to take further action in the following manner:-
(i) All Heads of the Department in the whole State of U.P. should send reminders to their employees that they and their family members have to compulsorily wear masks. This should be done on a daily basis.
(ii) The State Police should itself wear masks religiously and also see that everyone in their vicinity wears the masks. Here it may be mentioned that the security personnel deputed outside the houses of various dignitaries have not been wearing their masks. They should wear their masks and also request people passing by them that they should also wear masks.
(iii) All shops even other than eateries shall ensure that the customers/ individuals who enter their premises shall wear their masks at all times. Needless to say that non-wearing of masks would invite penalty and prosecution.
(iv) The Advocate Commissioners appointed by this Court may continue to take photographs as have been taken by them in the past and the State Authority may take action on those photographs.
4. In our earlier order, we had suggested that the Medical College at Prayagraj should have separate gates for the Swaroop Rani Nehru Hospital which deals with the Covid and non-covid patients. We had also pointed out that there was one gate in the hospital which opened in the road which joined the Nawab Yusuf Road and the Mahatma Gandhi Road and ran along the Medical College. This gate, if it is opened, a further source of ingress and egress would be made available and non-covid patients would be able to go with confidence inside the hospital. A joint effort may be made by the Nagar Nigam, Prayagraj Development Authority, Moti Lal Nehru Medical College, Swaroop Rani Hospital and the State Authorities to see that an alternative gate is provided by the 19th of October, 2020. Here it may also be stated that the shops on the Nagar Nigam land which surround the SRN hospital be removed as they not only create hindrance to the ingress and egress of the ambulances etc but they also dirty the surroundings of the hospital.
5. So far as the standard of masks and sanitizers are concerned, the learned Additional Advocate General has informed that the masks which are being sold in the market and also being worn by people in general are as per the ICMR guidelines. However, with regard to the sanitizers, we find that further clarity is required. We are unable to understand as to whether along with the license to manufacture and sale of the sanitizer, any requirement is there to take licenses under the Drugs and Cosmetic Act, 1940 and the Drugs and Cosmetic Rules, 1945. This aspect may be clarified by the State by the next date.
6. The issue of unauthorized encroachment on public land i.e. road side public land and other vacant public land has acquired importance in the wake of the wide-spr
