'Maharashtra govt playing politics over allowing all on local trains'

The vaccine mandate for travelling in local trains continues to be a bone of contention with the state issuing fresh guidelines reiterating that only those with at least two doses of COVID19 vaccine will be allowed to travel ldquoWe are sad that our state government has been playing politics for the last two yearsrdquo lamented senior citizen passenger committee member Mansoor Umer Darvesh from Jogeshwari Darvesh had sparked debate in August 2021 published on midday frontpage by stating in a letter to the chief ministerrsquos office and the railway bosses that vaccination was a choice and public transport was rightMansoor Umer Darvesh Senior Citizen Passenger Committee memberSpeaking to midday on Friday after the Maharashtra government refused to withdraw restrictions on unvaccinated using Mumbai local trains despite high court nudge Darvesh said BMC has removed all restrictions from theatres gymnasiums marriage halls but only public transport including local trains were restricted ldquoMumbai local trains and public transport are the only modes of transportation which are affordable to the common man There is no point in having such restrictions Enough is enough Now the ball is in the high court Unless the high court takes a bold decision the common man will continue to sufferrdquo he saidOne of the petitioners Yohan Tengra said on social media ldquoIn our hearing Bombay HC Chief Justice Dipankar Datta said he made a huge mistake by trusting that the state government and state executive committee would respect the advicedirection given by the bench to them regarding removing restrictions which have been imposed on unvaccinated people to travel Instead of following the courts directions the state issued a new order which continues to violate the fundamental rights of the citizens The Chief Justice said that he should have exercised his suo moto powers and quashed all the state orders which have been issued since August as they are all illegal and violate the fundamental rights of the citizens instead of giving a chance to the state He said that he will not forget this and that the court would remember this breach of trust in the futureldquoTengra added ldquoThe CJ reprimanded the Counsel for govt by stating that you say that vaccination is voluntary but indirectly making it mandatory to access public facilities He said it is very unfortunate that you are insisting everyone should get vaccinatedrdquo questioning ldquoIs there no personal choice availablerdquo He said that he should have exercised his suo moto powers and quashed all the state orders which have been issued since August as they all violate the fundamental rights of the citizens instead of giving a chance to the state He said that he will not forget this and that the court would remember this breach of trust in the future The bench asked the petitioners to file a fresh petition challenging the new order which we will be doing very soon and the matter will be up for hearing in court soon As the judges have understood the urgency behind it which is why they were taking this matter up almost daily since the last few hearings This is a huge victory for all of us in Maharashtra as the Chief Justice has set a precedent in law by declaring all of the orders that the state has passed since August regarding vaccine discrimination as ILLEGAL It is only a matter of time before they are officially struck down in court until then we can all use this order to exercise our fundamental rights while travelling going to malls offices etc All authorities have no obligation to follow any of these orders as the Chief Justice has declared that they are illegal it is only due to technical reasons that the order could not be set aside in todayrsquos hearingldquoAnother huge point of victory Fearing prosecution the State of Maharashtra has removed the provision of fines for masks and vaccines in their latest order after Senior Advocate Nilesh Ojha mentioned in Bombay HC there is no provision for fines in the Disaster Management Actrdquo Tengra said adding apart from this there are many other gross illegalities in this order which will be challenged and officially quashed soonCommuters travel in a local train The Bombay High Court has said the orders restricting unvaccinated commuters from taking trains was illegal File picBombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta on Wednesday said he had made a huge mistake by trusting that the state government and state executive committee would respect the advicedirection of the bench regarding removal of restrictions on unvaccinated peopleThe Chief Justice said that he should have exercised his suo motu powers and quashed all the state orders which have been issued since August as they are all illegal and violate the fundamental rights of the citizens instead of giving a chance to the state He said that he will not forget this and that the court would remember this breach of trust in the futureThe Chief Justice also reprimanded the counsel for the government and pointed out that while vaccination is said to be voluntary the government is making it mandatory in an indirect manner by making it mandatory to avail public facilitiesFeb 22Day the Bombay HC first pulled up the state