Decision To Allow Only Vaccinated People Travel in Mumbai Local Trains Challenged in Bombay HC

The COVID-19 restrictions were lifted off Mumbai local trains, the most common mode of transportation for the citizenry of Mumbai, on August 15. The circular mentioned that travel will be allowed for fully vaccinated people. Now, a new public interest litigation (PIL) has been filed in the Bombay High Court by Yohan Tengra, an activist and medical consultant, challenging the circular issued by the Maharashtra government on August 10 and 11.

The writ petition filed through advocate Abhishek Mishra says that the circular is arbitrary, unlawful, and unconstitutional. It also states that the circular violates the fundamental rights of citizens since it is making vaccines voluntary for people and is forcing people to get vaccinated. It adds that making vaccination a pre-condition for people to travel in trains violates the Universal Declaration of Bioethics and Human Rights, 2005.

The petition also contains statements against the circular issued by the Uddhav Thackeray government on July 15, which allows people who are fully vaccinated or carrying a negative report of the RT-PCR test done within 14 days to enter the state of Maharashtra. Tengra has referred to the orders issued by the courts and the responses of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to various RTIs, wherein it says that getting inoculated with vax doses is voluntary and the state cannot ask people to get vaccinated based on certain conditions, reports Hindustan Times.

The PIL also mentioned multiple studies conducted across the global medical fraternity that suggest that people who recover from COVID have better immunity than those who have received both vaccine doses. In addition, it also refers to the cases where people, despite getting the doses of the vaccine, got infected with COVID-19, even though the symptoms were milder than before.

A similar petition was filed by activist Firoze Mithiborewala last week, who also claimed that circular violates the fundamental rights of citizens.

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