The Guwahati High Court has stayed the Arunachal Pradesh government’s order, which said that only fully vaccinated people could enter the state for work.
The court said that this notice discriminates between those who have got the vaccine and those who do not, violating Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
What was the matter?
The Arunachal government on June 30 issued a notice saying that the Inner Line Permit (ILP) required to enter the state would remain suspended.
However, those coming to work in the ongoing development work in the private and government sectors can be issued a temporary permit.
This permit will be available only to those people who have got the coronavirus vaccine. A PIL was filed against it.
Court said – this kind of discrimination is incomprehensible
Hearing a PIL filed in this case by Dibang Valley resident Madan Mili, a single judge bench of Justice Nani Tagia said there is no reason behind such discrimination between those who have got the vaccine and those who have not. And this is incomprehensible.
The petitioner argued during the hearing that the central government has not made vaccination mandatory and it is completely optional.
What were the reasons given by the state government?
The state government, defending itself in the matter, said that in view of the increasing cases of Covid-19, this provision was made so that the epidemic could be prevented from progressing. On this, the court referred to an earlier judgment pronounced on July 2.
The court said that there is no evidence that a person who has been vaccinated will not be Covid infected or that he cannot spread the infection to other people. Therefore, as far as spreading the infection to other people is concerned, the person who has got the vaccine and the person who has not got it is the same. The next hearing of the case is to be held on July 28.
Let us tell you that it has not been made mandatory for citizens to get the vaccine in India.
What is the status of infection and vaccination in Arunachal?
According to the Health Ministry, 43,804 people have been found Covid infected so far in Arunachal. Of these, 4,332 are active cases, 39,269 people have been cured, and 203 people have died.
Talking about vaccination, a total of 7,83,845 doses have been administered in the state so far. Of these, 6,38,807 people have been given both the first and 1,45,038 people have been given both doses. The population here is more than 12.5 lakhs.