New Delhi:
The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a plea challenging the constitutional validity of the epidemic law and questioned the petitioner on why he had not moved the High Court on the matter.
The Supreme Court said higher courts have all the power to overturn central laws, like the Outbreak Law, and the petitioner should go first.
“What kind of petition have you filed, Mr Mirashi (petitioner). Don’t you have the Bombay High Court to challenge the epidemic law? The High Court has jurisdiction to overturn the central law,” said declared a tribunal headed by Judge DY Chandrachud. petitioner HN Mirashi.
“Why can’t you go to the high court? You take it out of here and you go to the high court,” said the bench, which also includes justices Indu Malhotra and Indira Banerjee.
The higher court observed that the applicant’s assertion that the higher courts do not have the power to annul a central law is “totally wrong”.
“The High Court has all the powers to do this,” Bench told the petitioner who had raised questions regarding the Maharashtra government’s COVID-19 quarantine policy.
After the bench said he was not inclined to accept the plea, the petitioner withdrew it.