A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Wednesday asked the government to restrict the number of persons attending the swearing-in ceremony of the new LDF government to avoid the spread of Covid-19.

The court observed that “the surge of Covid-19 pandemic is reflected in the statistics of the Kerala government. Purpose of lockdown/triple lockdown known to the Government. That is why such stringent conditions are imposed on the public, applicable to all citizens. The restrictions should not be diluted, or in other words, altered, by the government, solely for the swearing-in-ceremony”.

The court asked political parties to decide whether all the MLAs were required to be present in the swearing-in ceremony.

The court observed that all the MLAs’ spouses and relatives, except the designated Ministers were not required to participate in the swearing-in ceremony. Therefore, the ceremony could be viewed from the residence of the respective MLAs.

The court directed the State Government to consider whether all the special invitees, including the members of the State Committee of the political parties are required to be present, in view of the utmost adverse situations prevailing due to the pandemic. The court made it clear that the direction applied to all the special invitees including persons who had contributed to the Chief Minister’s Disaster Relief Fund.

The court passed the directives on a public interest petition filed against the decision to conduct the swearing-in ceremony with the participation of 500 persons.

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