India Travel Ban: Australia Court Rejects Plea Of Man Stuck In Bengaluru

The Australian court said the law was drafted with an appreciation that biosecurity emergencies might take a wide variety of forms and the precise nature of future threats could not be known.

An Australian court in Sydney on Monday dismissed the legal challenge filed by a 73-year old citizen stranded in Bengaluru, Karnataka, against the government's decision to temporarily ban the return of its citizens from COVID-19 stricken India. In its first hearing, Justice Thomas Thawley, who presided over the case, said the law was drafted with an appreciation that biosecurity emergencies might take a wide variety of forms and the precise nature of future threats could not be known. "It is tolerably clear that the chief medical officer thought further relief would come to Australia's quarantine endeavour by preventing further entry, even for those travelling indirectly through transit hubs," the judge said. The application was filed by lawyers acting for Gary Newman last week, seeking to overturn an emergency declaration made by Health Minister Greg Hunt last month under the Biosecurity Act.