[COVID vaccination] Permit everyone in local trains: Bombay High Court to Maharashtra govt

The Bombay High Court on Monday enquired whether the Maharashtra government is willing to withdraw the circulars restricting persons who are not fully vaccinated, from travelling in local transport [Feroze Mithiborwala v. State of Maharashtra and another].A Bench of Chief Justice (CJ) Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik emphasized that the COVID situation in the State has improved, and the manner in which the situation was handled by the State government was commendable.However, the present restrictions on use of public transport were unwarranted and bringing bad press, the Court observed. "Maharashtra handled the COVID situation beautifully. Why are you inviting bad name (to the State)?" the Bench wondered."This is no adversarial litigation. Let bygones be bygones. Let there be new beginning," CJ Datta added.The Court had earlier sought record of proceedings or meetings that led to the State's decision resulting in the policy which was under challenge in the public interest litigation.Once the files were produced and examined by the Bench, the judges opined that the circulars seemed to have been passed in violation of law.“Whatever has been done by the predecessor (of current Chief Secretary Debashish Chakraborty) is not in accordance of law. Withdraw this (circular) and allow people in public transport,” the Chief Justice remarked. The Bench asked the State to file an affidavit by Tuesday on this query and adjourned the hearing..In an earlier hearing, Senior Advocate Anil Anturkar for the State submitted that no record had been maintained due to administrative difficulties.Referring to the affidavit filed by Chakraborty, the Bench stated that it was unacceptable to not have minutes, proceedings or records of meeting that the officers allegedly conducted..The Bench had also asked the Central government to state if any national plan had been formulated under the Disaster Management Act pertaining to vaccination status of people and use of public transport during the COVID-19 pandemic.Responding to this query, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh stated while there was a national plan, the same had been formulated in 2019 before the COVID pandemic struck. He clarified that the Central government had been issuing guidelines and circulars during the COVID period, which was accepted by the Supreme Court from time to time during hearings of COVID related cases.