[COVID-19] Bombay High Court asks BMC to explain legal provisions under which fine was levied for not wearing masks

The Bombay High Court on Monday asked Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to explain under what provisions were they collecting fines from citizens for not wearing masks during the COVID-19 pandemic..A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Madhav Jamdar added that if the authority is able to show that the decisions were taken to achieve greater good, then the Court will not intervene.The Bench also referred to a Supreme Court judgment and asked the lawyers present to submit the same in the next hearing.“If the decision to make masks mandatory was taken for greater good then in that case the Court need not intervene with it. Just find out about it,” the Court said..The Court was dealing with a public interest litigation (PIL) petition questioning the validity of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) issued by the State on March 1 continuing the restrictions against citizens who are not fully vaccinated against COVID-19 from travelling in public transport and accessing public places.The petitioner, Feroze Mithiborwala, besides challenging the SOP also sought prosecution of former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray and other officials for various offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for misappropriating power by mandating masks, and sought for refund of the find imposed.Advocate Nilesh Ojha for the petitioner, referred to Section 51 of Disaster Management Act which stated fine can be levied by the authorities only after conviction and not before that.He pointed out that while the SOP had been taken taken care by an order of the Supreme court, all that remained to be seen was the misuse of power and refund of fine.Senior Advocate SU Kamdar appearing for the State pointed out that what was important to be noted was whether the order issued was legal or not, and the Supreme Court cleared the order.The issue of fines collected, Kamdar contended, was something the respective civic authorities were expected to answer and the State had no role to play in it..At this point, the Court asked BMC under what provision had they collected fines from the citizens.Senior Advocate Anil Sakhare sought time to get a response to the issue and accordingly, the Court placed the matter for arguments after two weeks.