Commuters wait to board a Mumbai local train on August 8, 2021. (Express Photo: Amit Chakravarty) The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it is willing to withdraw circulars issued last year on July 15, August 10 and 11, which permitted only “fully vaccinated” persons to board local trains and visit malls and workplaces.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand S Karnik was hearing two PILs that sought permission for all people in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region to board local trains, visit malls and workplaces, irrespective of their vaccination status.
The Maharashtra government said that the State Executive Committee (SEC) under the Disaster Management (DM) Act will review all orders that put restrictions on unvaccinated persons, in its next meeting scheduled on February 25. Notably, the chief secretary is the ex-officio chairperson of the SEC.
The court noted that Chief Secretary (CS) Debashish Chakrabarty is “firmly of the belief” that the fresh decision to be taken by the SEC will be in tune with the letter and spirit of the observations of the high court.
The high court observed in its order that former chief secretary Sitaram Kunte had taken “illegal” decisions without consulting other SEC members and in “violation of law and fundamental rights of citizens…”
On Monday, the Bombay High Court had asked Chakrabarty to inform it if the government would withdraw its decision to permit only fully vaccinated people aboard local trains.
The court had orally observed that Maharashtra should “not invite bad name” by continuing with its policy of restricting the movement of unvaccinated persons.
The state government said that the orders being challenged were already superseded by subsequent orders issued last year on August 27, October 8, 19 and 26, and other orders dated January 8, January 9 and January 31 are currently in force.
After the court queried as to whether the subsequent decisions, which are currently in force, were ratified by the SEC, the state’s counsel responded in the affirmative.
Senior advocate Anil Anturkar for the state government contended that in regard to the observations the high court made during previous hearings, along with letters of the Union government and the Covid-19 Task force, it has been decided that the SEC will meet on February 25 to review all orders and promulgate new comprehensive directives superseding all previous orders.
The Court asked the state to inform it about the fresh decision during the next hearing on February 28.
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