The Madras High Court, on Monday, while dismissing a public interest litigation (PIL) that challenged the Tamil Nadu government’s order permitting theatres and cinema halls to function at 100% capacity during the Covid-19 pandemic, asked the state government to review the situation in the state, The Hindu reported.
From November 1, theatres in the state have been functioning at full capacity, with Tamil films such as Annaatthe and Enemy, running successfully and people thronging to see them on big screens for Diwali.
On Monday, Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice PD Audikesavalu, while hearing the petition filed by a Thoothukudi businessman, R Sivamurugan Athithan, said “There is no doubt that the pandemic has not gone away. Yet, the recent number of COVID-19 positive cases, even during the festive season, does not raise any alarm of a third surge.”
In his PIL, Athithan had stated that theatres running at full occupancy in the state can lead to a hike in the number of Covid-19 cases.
The court, while observing that there is absence of “any concrete material” to disprove the grounds on which the state government issued orders permitting full occupancy in cinema halls, stated that the state government would have taken the decision after careful thought and they would be in “presumption in favour of the State”.
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The petitioner’s counsel also pointed out during the hearing that the state government has not come up with a specific Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for theatres, to which the court said that wearing masks and following social distancing are the only rules to be followed in public spaces. The Bench noted that cinema halls are also required to follow these protocols.
The court also requested the Tamil Nadu government to review the number of Covid-19 cases in cities, towns, and other places.
As of Monday, the number of active Covid cases in Tamil Nadu stands at 10,372, with 841 testing positive on Monday alone.