Mumbai Feb 21 PTI The Bombay High Court on Monday asked the Maharashtra government if it was willing to withdraw its notification issued last year prohibiting people not vaccinated against COVID-19 from travelling in local trains in the city Let bygones be bygones Let there be a new beginning Chief Justice Dipankar Datta said adding that Chief Secretary Debashish Chakraborty must inform the court on Tuesday if the state government will withdraw its decision to permit only fully vaccinated people to travel in the suburban trains A bench of Chief Justice Datta and Justice M S Karnik was hearing two public interest litigations seeking that all people in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region MMR be allowed to travel in local trains irrespective of their vaccination status The PILs challenged three notifications issued by the Maharashtra government in July and August last year that prohibited unvaccinated people from travelling in local trains which are considered as the lifeline of Mumbai Niles Ojha the counsel for one of the petitioners had earlier argued in the HC that the prohibition on use of local trains by unvaccinated people was illegal arbitrary and in breach of the citizens fundamental right to move freely across the country as guaranteed by Article 19 1 d of the Constitution He had argued that the governments move discriminated between the vaccinated and unvaccinated people though neither the Centre nor the Maharashtra government had made vaccination mandatory On the previous hearings the HC asked for the state files on the three notifications under challenge and realised that the decision to prohibit unvaccinated people from travelling in local trains had been taken unilaterally by the then chief secretary Sitaram Kunte The high court on Monday said Chief Secretary has to withdraw order the notification on such prohibition Whatever has been done by his predecessor Kunte is not in accordance with law Withdraw this and allow people Now the COVID-19 situation has improved Maharashtra handled it beautifully Why are you inviting a bad name the court said The state must be sensible and not treat the issue as an adversarial litigation the court said and sought the chief secretarys response by Tuesday afternoon PTI AYA GK GK

Mumbai Nov 30 PTI Senior IAS officer Debashish Chakraborty was given charge of the post of Maharashtra Chief Secretary after incumbent Sitaram Kunte retired on Tuesday Chakraborty a 1986 batch Indian Administrative Service officer is holding additional charge as CS an official from the chef ministers office said The Maharashtra government had sought an extension for Kunte but there was no reply from the Centre on the issue so far the official added PTI PR BNM BNM BNM