Persons on essential duty must be encouraged to work without fear of duress or restraint: Bombay HC

MUMBAI: Bombay high court on Friday held that persons engaged in emergency and essential work, like in police and fire department as well as in hospitals and disaster management work, should be "encouraged to discharge their duty without fear of duress and restraint" rather than being forced to reside away from their residence.
The HC dismissed two Public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a sitting Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Member of legislative Assembly (MLA) from Panvel, Prashant Thakur and a Vasai resident Charan Bhatt which sought orders to keep such staff residing in distant suburbs of Vasai-Virar, part of Palghar district and Panvel, but working in Mumbai, a hotspot, to be given accommodation in the metro itself as they posed a risk of spreading Covid-19 to other residents on their return home each day.
The bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice S S Shinde said, "narrow personal interest must yield to greater public interest involved."
The HC said that even if some staffers, working tirelessly to implement measures for overall benefit of mankind, have unfortunately been infected by Covid-19, "there is no ground to sort of ostracize them." The "call for the moment", said the HC is "a humane approach."It also reasoned that the June 4 order by the state has eased travel restrictions within MMR region.
Uday Warunjikar, counsel for the two petitioners, a Vasai resident Charan Bhatt and Prashant Thakur argued it was a "genuine concern" to safeguard residents of Vasai-Virar Municipal Corporation and Panvel.
State advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni and government pleader PP Kakade seeking dismissal of the PIL said it "reveals insensitivity on the petitioner’s part" in seeking to keep essential frontline workers in isolation when in fact they have been doing their best to keep fellow citizens free of infection and fighting to contain the spread. Anil Sakhare, Atul Damle and J G Reddy appearing for Mumbai, Vasai-Virar and Panvel Municipal corporations argued that the PILs were "misconceived.
The state also said, it was not possible to arrange accommodation in Mumbai, given the sheer number of people who live in distant suburbs like Vasai and Virar but work in Mumbai for emergency and essential services like police and fire department or disaster management.
The HC noted that when Warunjikar realized that the PIL might fail, he sought orders that were not part of his petition. He said the state must at least be directed to screen or test essential staffers at Mumbai’s entry and exit points when they return home every evening. To this Sakhare, counsel for Mumbai’s civic body pointed out the State Chief Secretary’s June 4 order which eased restriction on inter district travel within the eight corporations in Mumbai Metropolitan Region which includes Vasai-Virar region, which falls in Palghar district. The counsel for Vasai-Virar Municipal corporation Damle said since there several entry and exit points which will now have thousands criss-crossing it would impractical to screen them all. Jagdeesh Reddy counsel for Panvel Municipal Corporation also sought dismissal of the PIL.
The HC said it was a "sense of fear" of Covid-19 that drove the petitioners to come to court and noted that the staffers, family men and women, would also be taking due care and act cautiously to ensure that they do not endanger their "near and dear ones."