MUMBAI: Commenting on the impact travel curbs have on livelihood, the Bombay high court on Monday said all who are vaccinated must be allowed to travel by Mumbai’s local trains.
“Spread your net wide. Not just lawyers but people from all walks of life,” a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni told the state while hearing a PIL urging restrictions be eased for lawyers.
Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said at a meeting with the railways a formula was worked out to allow lawyers partially or fully vaccinated, based on their age, to use the trains. He said the railways wanted a letter from the State Disaster Management Authority headed by the chief minister, who is now touring flood-hit areas. Additional solicitor general Anil Singh for the Centre indicated that if such approval comes through, “immediately we’ll permit.”
The AG said the SDMA was “slightly reluctant” to allow train travel for lawyers as it did in the first phase. “This time frontline, health and certain government employees are allowed. Even telephone, electric and other essential services are not allowed,’’ he added. The judges questioned the basis for these selective restrictions saying unlike last year people are being vaccinated. “What is the benefit of vaccination? Vaccinated persons are not expected to stay home. People have to earn their livelihood,” said the CJ.
Senior advocate Milind Sathe, for State Bar Council, said around 4,000 advocates in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region and not more than 1,000 in Mumbai would require train passes. But the judges wanted to know if there was a comprehensive plan to allow travel for all who are vaccinated.
“This suspended position and uncertainty is affecting everyone and some sections of the population to an extent that there is burden on finances,” said Justice Kulkarni.
The judges referred to the state of roads. “It takes three hours each way to reach Dahisar (from south Mumbai). Why population travelling by roads cannot travel by train?” asked Justice Kulkarni.
