The court dismissed the petition and imposed costs of Rs 10,000 on the litigant….reports Asian Lite News
Madras High Court on Thursday dismissed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by a lawyer against the state government over its insistence on wearing masks.
Chief Justice Munishwar Nath Bhandari and Justice N. Mala passed the orders on the petition filed by Advocate S.V. Ramamurthy who claimed that wearing masks had adverse effects and that people were not able to inhale oxygen properly.
The petitioner, in his Public Interest Litigation, had challenged a Tamil Nadu government order issued by the state health department on January 12 and another order issued by the Greater Chennai Corporation on July 4 for imposing a fine of Rs 500 for those who did not wear masks.
The court dismissed the petition and imposed costs of Rs 10,000 on the litigant.
Meanwhile in Delhi, the government has made wearing of masks in public places mandatory and a fine of Rs 500 will be imposed on violators, in the wake of a sudden surge of new Covid-19 cases.
The decision was taken by the DDMA after noticing that people were not adhering to wearing of masks at public places.
The district administration has been directed to implement the decisions which were taken in the DDMA’s meeting held in April.
“The DDMA after examining all the relevant facts related to the issue of penal provisions for not adhering to the Covid protocol of wearing of masks at public places, decided that whereby not wearing of face mask/cover in all public places has been made an offence, a fine of Rs 500 for not wearing of face mask/cover in all public places in Delhi will be imposed,” said a Delhi government notification.
It further said that people travelling together in a private vehicles will be exempt from being fined.
In view of the decision, three Enforcement Teams in Revenue District South has been constituted to monitor the enforcement of the mandate.