The Bombay High Court on Tuesday said the orders passed by the former Maharashtra Chief Secretary allowing only fully vaccinated persons to travel in local trains was illegal and brazen violation of the fundamental rights of citizens.
A division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice M.S. Karnik was informed by the Maharashtra government that it was willing to withdraw the circulars of July 15 and August 10 and 11 last year permitting only "fully vaccinated” people to board local trains and that it would review its subsequent circulars.
The Chief Secretary (CS) had written to the State lawyer that though these orders had been withdrawn, some of the restrictions would continue to be in operation. "In spirit of observation of court, these (new) orders may also be reviewed. With notice period of three days as per Disaster Management Rules, as per prevalent situation, I'll promulgate new directive superceding orders in force," the Chief Secretary said.
The court then asked if the new orders were also passed by CS without consulting State executive committee (SEC).
"They are ratified by SEC," the lawyer appearing for the State responded.
The bench said, "With this situation, you are affecting fundamental rights of parties by a process which is not in accordance with law. Leave aside members of the public, every time we used to have review meeting of administrative judges, we were guided by these orders."
The CS said fresh decision would be taken by the SEC on February 25 in tune with the letter and spirit of the observations of the court.
The hearing was adjourned to February 28.
The court was hearing two public interest litigation petitions seeking to lift the ban on unvaccinated or those who took only one jab travelling on local trains.
