New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Union Health Secretary to arrange a meeting between the chief secretaries of Kerala and Karnataka to find an amicable solution to the inter-state border road closure dispute.
The oral directive was issued while considering a Special Leave Petition filed by Karnataka, challenging the recent Kerala High Court's order to remove the road blockade at Talapady.
The apex court directed both the states not to precipitate the issue until it considers the petition on April 7, reported Bar and Bench.
A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and Deepak Gupta also issued a notice on the writ petition filed by Kararagod MP Rajmohan Unnithan, challenging Karnataka's action, reported Live Law.
Arguments
Karnataka's Advocate General Prabhuling Navadgi argued that opening of the border road would lead to law ad order issue as residents on the Karnataka side would forcibly stop people from Kasargod.
Jaideep Gupta, who appeared for Kerala, said blockades should be removed only to allow the movement of vehicles carrying carrying patients to Mangaluru.
Importance of border road
The National Highway-66 passes that through Talapady connects Kerala's Kasaragod district with Karnataka's Mangaluru, a hub of prominent hospitals and educational institutions.
The closure of the border road has snowballed into a major controversy with Kerala and Karnataka throwing barbs at each other.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan took up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, citing difficulties in movement of essential commodities and people seeking expert medical help.
Karnataka said it closed the road to stop entry of people from Kasaragod, one of the hot spots of coronavirus outbreak in India.
The closure had affected Kerala badly, especially people living in the border district of Kasaragod. In the absence of advanced medical care facilities, people from the district flock to the hospitals in Mangaluru.
As many as six patients from Kasaragod had died after the border was closed on March 21.
Kerala High Court order
The Kerala High Court had on April 1 ordered to open the border road.
The court said the National Highways come under the administrative jurisdiction of the central government and that the provisions of the National Highways Act clearly provide for the maintenance of such highways by it. "The act even provides for penal measures to be taken against anyone blocking such a highway," the court said.
The arterial roads that connect Mangaluru in Karnataka, to Kasaragod in Kerala were part of the National Highway network and it is therefore the duty of the central government to ensure that the said roads are kept free of blockades, the court had said.
