The Maharashtra government on Tuesday told the Bombay High Court that it would withdraw the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued last year which had disallowed non-vaccinated citizens from travelling in the suburban local trains. This comes after the HC held that the state government’s orders barring unjabbed citizens were ‘illegal’ and brazenly affected the fundamental rights of the citizens.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Makarand Karnik said the three orders issued by the government’s then chief secretary, Sitaram Kunte, in July and August 2021, were clearly against the procedure under the Disaster Management Rules.
“The orders passed by the former chief secretary were in clear diversion of the prescribed procedure,” the CJ said, adding, “due to the illegal orders, the fundamental rights of citizens were brazenly affected.”
Senior counsel Anil Anturkar, representing the state on Tuesday, told the judges that the three orders stand withdrawn in the spirit of the observations made by the HC in previous hearings.
“The state executive committee would be holding a meeting on February 25, after which fresh directives would be issued on unjabbed citizens,” Anturkar submitted.
The senior counsel further clarified that a proper decision on non-vaccinated citizens would be taken in the review meeting to be held on February 25.
At this, the Chief Justice pointed out that the number of fresh positive cases had been at their lowest on Monday, in comparison to the past 20 months.
“We hope and trust that the state executive committee takes an appropriate decision on February 25, keeping in mind the declining trend of COVID-19 cases,” the CJ said while posting the matter for further hearing on February 28.
The bench, in its orders noted that Kunte being the chairperson, had the powers to pass such orders only in emergency situations. “But in our opinion, none of these SOPs rendered any emergency situation,” the bench said.
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