High Court asks Centre to evacuate Indian students in coronavirus-hit Iran

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court directed the Centre on Thursday to ensure that the Indian embassy in Iran gets in touch with the Indian students stranded there in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak.

Justice Navin Chawla told the Centre that the court will not tolerate non-compliance of its direction to contact the students and said it wants a report on that aspect on March 17, the next date of hearing.

The court directed the ministries of home, external affairs, health and aviation, represented by central government's standing counsel Anurag Ahluwalia, to come up with a positive plan regarding evacuation of the students.

The court was hearing a plea moved by the parents of the Indian students who are stranded in Iran due to the coronavirus outbreak, seeking directions to the Centre to evacuate them.