The Maharashtra government on Wednesday came under the ire of the Bombay High Court for its move to go on with a rule that makes full vaccination in order to avail public transport, including local trains, mandatory. The HC said that the decision of the government was a violation of fundamental rights, and labelled it as unfortunate.
“This is very unfortunate. You (the state government) are insisting that everyone should get vaccinated. There is no question of personal choice. On one hand you say it is voluntary, not compulsory, and on the other hand, you create such a situation that everyone must get vaccinated,” said a bench comprising Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice M S Karnik.
The judges added that the high court should have extended its `suo motu jurisdiction’ (power to act on its own) and struck down several Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) issued by the state. “….we committed a mistake in restricting the scope of this PIL only to the three SOPs under challenge. We should have gone ahead and struck down the entire notifications issued after August 10, 2021. But we had hoped the state government will take a reasonable decision,” the bench said as it blasted the state government.
The Maharashtra government had on February 22 withdrew its orders issued on July 15 and August 11 last year, as well as its August 10 SOPs on public transport, after the HC pushed it to do so.
But on Wednesday, the state’s lawyer Anil Anturkar informed that the state executive committee met on February 25, and decided to extend the restriction on travel by those not fully vaccinated. Anturkar submitted a copy of an SOP drafted on Tuesday (March 1) which is yet to be published. The new SOP says that only those who are fully vaccinated can use local trains and other modes of public transport and visit malls and public places in Mumbai.
“The state executive committee instead of respecting the observations made in our February 22 order, has insisted on only fully vaccinated people being allowed to use public transportation despite the fact that presently in Mumbai and adjoining areas, almost every activity is being performed as it was in pre-pandemic days,” the judges said.
The court was hearing Public Interest Litigations challenging three SOPs issued by the government in July and August 2021, which mandated that only those who had received both doses of anti-covid vaccines could travel by local trains and other modes of public transport in the city.
(With PTI inputs)
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