SC dismisses PIL seeking hotels' conversion into quarantine centres

New Delhi :The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed an application seeking directions for conversion of hotels, resorts and guesthouses across the nation to shelter homes, quarantine centres and isolation wards.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta contended that the government has already initiated the process. A bench comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta, dismissing the PIL, said: "People are coming with millions of ideas; cannot hear everyone."

The petitioner wanted its application to be attached with another plea seeking relief, led by Advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava, wanting urgent intervention on the plight of thousands of migrant workers choosing to walk back to their villages from cities, after the three-week nationwide lockdown was imposed.

The petitioners in the application said state governments across the country are in the process of spending huge amounts on acquiring stadiums, railway coaches and converting them into quarantine facilities which may not be necessary, before exhausting self-contained accommodations which have such facilities already.

The application emphasized the immediate need to use the facilities which will be very crucial as they are already equipped with essentials such as power back-up, beds, multiple washrooms, regular water supply, pantry kitchen areas, ventilation, lifts, manpower and security.

The petitioners contended that stadiums and coaches "cannot match or be equated with the sanitation and hygiene levels offered by self-contained accommodations, which are required to be maintained especially keeping in mind COVID19 emergency."