Allowing only fully vaccinated people to travel in Mumbai’s local trains is illegal and violates the fundamental rights of those who have not taken the jab, the Bombay High Court told Maharashtra government on Tuesday, reported PTI.

The court was hearing a batch of petitions that argued that the prohibitions issued last year violated the fundamental right to freely move across the country as guaranteed by Article 19(1)(d) of the Constitution.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice MS Karnik on Tuesday said that the three government orders, issued between July 15 and August 11, to not allow unvaccinated citizens in local trains, were not in consonance with the rules under the National Disaster Management Act.

According to the regulations, chief secretary of a state needs to demonstrate “extreme urgency” to impose restrictions, such as preventing entry of unvaccinated people in local trains, Live Law reported.

“But, we opine that none of the three orders rendered an emergent situation warranting the former chief secretary to pass such orders,” the court said, according to PTI.

State administration’s counsel Anil Anturkar said that three orders signed by the chief secretary have been withdrawn.

“In [the] spirit of the observations made by the high court, the three orders are withdrawn,” he said. “The state executive committee would be holding a meeting on February 25 following which fresh directives would be issued.”

He added that the state may withdraw or reimpose the restrictions based on the current situation of the pandemic.

To this, the judges pointed out that 96 coronavirus cases were recorded in Mumbai on Monday – the lowest in 20 months.

“We hope and trust that the state executive committee takes an appropriate decision on February 25, keeping in mind the declining trend of Covid-19 cases,” the High Court said.

The matter will now be heard on February 28.