Bengaluru:The Karnataka government has moved the Supreme Court challenging a Kerala High Court order with regard to clearing the border blockade at the National Highway connecting Kerala to Mangaluru.
The HC has asked the Centre to intervene and remove the blockades erected by Karnataka and permit ferrying of essential goods and emergency services.
The plea will be taken up for hearing by a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta on Friday.
The state government’s plea filed by advocate Shubhranshu Padhi said, “The issue involved in the present SLP (special leave petition) is with regard to the closure of a road between the State of Karnataka and State of Kerala in order to combat the spread of the pandemic COVID-19…from the bordering Districts of the States.”
The plea said the order of the Kerala High Court has been passed wholly without any jurisdiction and is thus liable to be set aside.
“The said direction has been passed despite the earlier observations in the same Impugned Order that the High Court had no territorial jurisdiction to issue any direction to the State of Karnataka to remove any impediments which are located in the State of Karnataka. On the face of it, the Impugned Order has been passed wholly without any jurisdiction and is thus liable to be set aside on this ground alone,” the plea said.
The state government said that Karnataka has locked down its borders in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19 except the movement of essential commodities.
“The State of Karnataka had specifically closed the Makutta Check post on the Mysore-Virajepat-Kannur highway. However, the High Court vide the Impugned Order has directed Central Government to intervene and remove the closure on the said road,” it said.
The plea said the order passed by Karnataka is based on adequate material as the existing facilities in the Mangalore district would not support patients from outside the state and there was every possibility of a serious outbreak of COVID-19 in the border districts of Karnataka, if free ingress and outgress of patients is allowed.
The High Court had on April 1 gave the order on a PIL seeking directions for opening of the roads connecting Kasaragod in Kerala and Mangaluru in Karnataka, which had been closed by Karnataka in view of the lockdown to check the COVID-19 outbreak.
“…we feel compelled to issue directions to the Central Government today because we are of the view that any further delay could entail loss of precious lives of our citizens”, the Court had said in its order delivered on Wednesday night after a detailed hearing earlier in the day.
As of Wednesday night, seven people from Kasaragod in Kerala died after their ambulances were not allowed to enter Karnataka.
