Was Fine Collected By BMC For Not Wearing Masks Illegal? Bombay High Court To Decide

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik, hearing a public interest litigation raising the issue, has sought a detailed affidavit from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and kept the case for a hearing in July.

The issue has been raised in the same PIL filed by Feroze Mithiborwala in which the State government's decision to permit only fully vaccinated people to use the public transport has been challenged.

While hearing the PIL, the government lawyer informed the court that the State government had withdrawn all the restrictions, after which the bench sought to know if everyone was allowed in public transport now, the answer to which was given in the affirmative. The bench was also informed that every restriction, including wearing of masks, was withdrawn.

Mithiborwala's lawyer told the bench that one issue raised in the PIL about collection of fines from the citizens for not wearing a mask was yet to be decided. He submitted that there was no provision to collect the fine, by which around Rs 120 crore was recovered from the people. He sought that the money be returned to the citizens.

The bench then asked why should this issue be entertained, as, not all of whom must have paid the fine be poor. "Even rich people were fined. Citizens can come personally and challenge the action initiated against them by clean up marshals," Chief Justice Datta said.

The bench was then informed that 40 lakh people had been fined for not wearing masks in Mumbai, after which the Chief Justice asked the petitioner how he would find out how many of them were rich and how many poor. "Take for instance 10 lakh are rich, then? Can't they come on their own?" the court asked further. Mithiborwala's lawyer then sought that the court atleast declare that the fine collected was illegal, after which the court sought BMC's response.

Mithiborwala has challenged the March 1, 2022 Standard Operating Procedure of the Maharashtra government which continued with restrictions allowing only fully vaccinated citizens to travel in public transport facilities. Calling this as arbitrary and unconstitutional, the PIL alleged that it was an indirect attempt on the part of the Maharashtra government to make vaccination compulsory.