by On Sunday night, Pipe and Barrel Club in Sector 9 and Illusion Club in Sector 7 was raided. These two clubs were found organizing a party and violating norms imposed by the Chandigarh administration seeing the surge in COVID-19 cases. Chandigarh administration sealed these nightclubs for serving hookah to the customers. It was discovered that both the clubs were openly disregarding the UT administration’s orders of closing the commercial places by 11pm.
Around 1:30 am on a Sunday night, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM, east) Ruchi Singh Bedi conducted a raid at Illusion Club which was functioning from the site of Sultan, Sector 7. The club was hosting a party without permission and fail to comply with the norms set by the UT administration. On February 14 2021, District Magistrate Mandip Singh Brar issued an order under Section 144 of the CrPC, “no hookah shall be served for smoke/consumption in hotels/restaurants/taverns/bars/hookah bars, etc.” Thus the Hookah bars have been banned since then.
The main reason to take such measure was to control the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Hookahs are smoked by a number of people via using the hose, pipe, and bowl, likely to physical mouth to mouth touch of a number of people. This deemed as a great danger to the health and safety of a human being amidst the pandemic.
As per the orders, the violators of this order will be punished under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the IPC.
Another raid was conducted by SDM (central) Harjeet Singh Sandhu. Likewise, Pipe and Barrel Club, Sector 9, was found serving Hookah to the customers.
Furthermore, the UT administration decided to seal these commercial establishments as they failed to comply with the norms. In addition to this, separate FIRs are also registered against the violators of the orders.
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