‘Delhi govt order to wear mask in car while driving alone is absurd’

Delhi, Feb. 1: The Delhi High Court Tuesday termed as ‘absurd’ a Delhi government order making it compulsory to wear a mask while driving alone in the context of Covid-19 and asked why the decision was still prevailing.

“It is a Delhi government order, why don’t you withdraw it. It is absurd actually. You are sitting in your own car and you must wear the mask?” the bench said.

“Why is this order prevailing? Take instructions,” a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh told the Delhi government counsel.

The observation by the bench came when the counsel representing the Delhi government shared an incident of a man being challaned for not wearing a mask while sitting in his car along with his mother and sipping coffee with windows up.

During the hearing, senior advocate Rahul Mehra, representing the Delhi government, said the high court's single judge order of April 7, 2021, which had refused to interfere with the Delhi government's decision to impose challans for not wearing a mask while driving a private car alone, was ‘very unfortunate’.

“Somebody sitting in the car with rolled-up windows and being challaned for `2,000. That single judge order is very unfortunate,” he said, adding that when the DDMA order was passed the situation was different and now the pandemic is almost over.

When the bench reminded him that the initial order was passed by the Delhi government which was then challenged before the single judge, Mehra said be it the order of the Delhi government or Central government, it is a bad order and needs to be revisited.

When he said the division bench should set aside the order, Justice Sanghi said it can only consider the issue when the order will be brought before it.