Interesting Observations In Kerala High Court's Judgment Upholding PM's Photo On Vaccination Certificate

The Kerala High Court has recently dismissed the petition that had sought for removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's photograph from the Covid-19 vaccination certificates. There were two prayers in the plea: (i) to declare that affixing the photograph of the Prime Minister of India in the COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate of the petitioner is an infringement of his fundamental right. (ii) to issue the petitioner a COVID-19 vaccination certificate without the photograph of the Prime Minister in it, along with access to the COWIN platform, to generate such a certificate when needed.The plea was filed through Advocate Ajit Joy and Assistant Solicitor General of India S. Manu countered the pleadings and urged for the matter to be dismissed with costs. Here are a few key observations from the sensational judgment delivered by Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan: 1. 'Fantastic' Arguments Raised By PetitionerThe petitioner had produced screenshots of the landing page of the Cowin site, the Health Ministry website, the landing page of the Aarogya Setu app and the Cabinet Minister's tweet on the eve of the Prime Minister's birthday, all of which contained Modi's photograph."Even though the petitioner produced Exts P1, P3, P4, and P7 to show that the photograph of the Hon'ble Prime Minister is there in all those documents, he confines his prayer for removing the photographs of the Hon'ble Prime Minister from Ext P2 vaccination certificate of the petitioner. According to my opinion, the petitioner is raising fantastic arguments to support his contentions."The Court also refers to several other arguments raised by the petitioner as 'fantastic' in a sarcastic tone which have been mentioned later in the report (or refer para 11, 12 of the judgment).2. So What If The Prime Minister's Photo Is On The Certificate?The Court opined that when the country managed to procure and manufacture vaccines at such trying times, there was nothing wrong with the photo of the Prime Minister being affixed on the vaccination certificate."Our country is facing the Covid-19 pandemic for the last one and half years. The country faced 1st and 2nd waves of the pandemic. Because of the hard work of our experts in the vaccine field, our country was able to produce a vaccine for this pandemic. Moreover, vaccines manufactured in other countries are also available in the market. The population of India is now nearing 140 crores. The only way to eliminate the COVID-19 pandemic is vaccination by all the citizens. In such a situation, while issuing a certificate for COVID-19 vaccination, if the Prime Minister of India gave a message with his photograph that with the help of medicine and strict control, India will defeat COVID-19, what is wrong with it?" 3. Are You Not Living In This Country? Court To Petitioner The petitioner had argued that the photograph of the Prime Minister on his vaccination certificate was an intrusion to his privacy. To this the Court responded:"What a fantastic argument! Is he not living in this country? The Prime Minister of India is not a person who entered the parliament house by breaking the roof of the parliament building. He came to power because of the mandate of the people. The Indian democracy is being praised by the world. The Prime Minister is elected because he got people's mandate...Once the election is over and the majority of people gave a mandate to a political party which leads to the election of Prime Minister, he is not the leader of that political party but he is a leader of the country." 4. Be Proud Of Our Prime Minister; Respect HimAccording to the Bench, the Prime Minister ought to be the pride of every citizen: "...once a Prime Minister is elected as per the constitution, he is the Hon'ble Prime Minister of our country and that post should be the pride of every citizen, whether the Prime Minister is "X" or "Y"."On similar lines, the Court added: "Till the next general election, he will be the Prime Minister of India...Therefore, according to me, it is the duty of the citizens to respect the Prime Minister of India, and of course, they can differ on the policies of the Government and even the political stand of the Prime Minister...the citizen need not be ashamed to carry a vaccination certificate with the photograph of the Prime Minister with a morale boosting message, especially in this pandemic situation." At a later part of the judgment, it was reiterated: "The petitioner should study the respect to be given to the Prime Minister and others by watching at least the parliamentary proceedings, which are available live on National TV. The opposition leaders will object to the policies of the Government with vehemence. But they still address the Prime Minister as the 'Hon'ble Prime Minister'."5. No Words; Only Pity For the PetitionerThe Court opined that the petitioner being a person who is well-versed with the history of the country,should not have raised such arguments in his plea and found it...

Interesting Observations In Kerala High Court's Judgment Upholding PM's Photo On Vaccination Certificate

Hannah M Varghese

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