LawPutra ®

Committed To Your Success

SC issues notice to govt. : in reply of plea to ban Sanitization Tunnels

SC issues notice to govt. : in reply of plea to ban Sanitization Tunnels

-By Snehi Suryash

A PIL was filed by Gursimran Singh Narula, in Supreme Court. That sought for complete ban on sanitization tunnels being used in the country to disinfect entrants of the public place. Such tunnels also amounted to non-consensual medical experiments for the people.

The Supreme Court has issued notice to put a complete ban on sanitization tunnels. The tunnels were being used across the country to disinfect entrants of a public place/ premises.

A three-Judges bench comprised of Justice Ashok Bhushan, Justice R. Subhash Reddy and Justice MR Shah has issued notice to UOI.

Narula is a final year student from Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law, IIT Kharagpur. Narula had approached the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on two occasions in the past. However, the advisory issued by the Ministry in April did not address the issue of the use of such disinfectant chambers and tunnels. In fact, advisories promoting use of such chemical disinfectants were issued subsequently by two bodies.

Narula argued about the bad effects of disinfectant chambers and tunnels before the apex court.

The petitioner in his PIL claimed that the so called disinfectant tunnels are “ineffective” in preventing spread of the virus. It also have dangerous after effects, as they expose human beings to ultra violet rays. And the same amounts to “non-consensual medical experimentation”.

The plea also refereed to WHO & other health organization and experts across the world. Which have alarmed at unchecked and mis-informed usage of such disinfection tunnels can have serious physical and psychological consequences.

He has contended that such “faulty notions” that spraying of disinfectants on human beings has no adverse health impact has led to violation of right to healthy life under Article 21 of the Constitution.

Apart from WHO, he pointed out, even the Directorate General of Health Services (EMR Division), Ministry of Health & Family Welfare issued an advisory in April this year, against spraying of disinfectant on people for COVID-19 management.

The advisory stated that spraying of individuals or groups is NOT recommended under any circumstances. And it can lead to irritation of eyes, skin and potentially gastrointestinal and psychological problems. It further added that such measures may in fact lead to false sense of disinfection & safety. And it can actually hinder public observance to hand washing and social distancing measures.

However, certain Indian medical institutions such as Indian medical institutions namely,

Pune based CSIR-NCL and the Mumbai based Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) issued a joint statement. The institutions have casted doubt on scientific value of the Government advisory against spraying of disinfectants on human beings. The statement remarked that the advisories did not have any scientific basis and upheld the usage of disinfectant tunnel.

This activity has resulted in spread of mis-information in public. And has promoted unscrupulous use of self-claimed organic disinfectants. Even many IPS officers have misconstrued the advisory and are promoting the use of disinfectant tunnels in schools and other public places.

Accordingly, he has sought forthwith ban on the usage, installation, production, advertisement of disinfection tunnels involving spraying or fumigation of chemical disinfectants for the purposes disinfecting human beings.