The Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community (TSJCV) has authorized the limitation of social and family gatherings to a maximum of 10 people and the restriction of night mobility between 1 a.m. and 6 a.m. in 68 towns with more than 5.000 inhabitants that present a greater epidemiological risk due to Covid-19, 32 of them from the province of Valencia, 27 in Alicante and 9 municipalities belonging to Castellón. In the Marina Alta, the affected populations are Dénia, Pedreguer, Calp, Pego, Teulada and Xàbia. These measures will be active from August 17 to September 6, according to the brief presented to the Court this Wednesday, August 10 by the Conselleria de Sanidad Universal.
The Chamber considers that the adoption of the requested measures supposes the maintenance of a control “still necessary” based on the proportionality criterion and adds that “there is no more moderate measure that with the same efficiency achieves the purpose of limiting the so-called 'bottles 'and crowds of people ”. The Court understands the same with respect to the limitation of the number of people in family or social gatherings, which involve "the largest epidemic outbreaks, which affect not only young people but all members of the group."
The order, which has the dissenting vote of one of the magistrates and which can be appealed in cassation, alludes to the expansion of the Delta variant of the coronavirus, the increase in hospitalizations and deaths, the growth in the positivity of diagnostic tests and increasing socialization and mobility. In the same way, the Court recalls that currently the age groups most affected are the youngest, in which "the disease is usually mild and presents few comorbidities", although these infections have an impact "especially in Primary Care". The resolution adds that there is a risk of the appearance of a variant that may affect the protection of vaccines and previous infection.
With these premises, detailed in the report on epidemiological evolution that the Administration has attached to its request, the Chamber concludes that the measures proposed by the Department of Health involve a maintenance of control that is "still necessary" and that it complies with the "constitutional judgment of proportionality. ”, As has been determined by the Administrative Litigation Chamber of the Superior Court of Justice of the Valencian Community in previous resolutions.
In the order, the Supreme Court of the Valencian Community examines the ruling of the Constitutional Court of July 14 that declares unconstitutional the general confinement decreed by the central Government with the first state of alarm as it is a suspension of the right to free movement. Unlike that situation, the Chamber understands that the curfew "does not imply a suspension, but a mere limitation of such rights, consisting of restricting freedom of movement for five hours and at night." In the same way, the Chamber has alluded to the sentence of the Supreme Court of August 2 in which the High Court determines directly and positively that with the current legislation the curfew is applicable as long as it is justified by the principle of proportionality.
