The Kerala High Court has dismissed a writ petition challenging an order of the State Government allowing entry to educational institutions and hostels only those school students, teachers, and other staff members who have taken two doses of COVID vaccine or one dose of the vaccine before two weeks and those who have recovered from the infection within the previous 90 days.
Dismissing the petition filed by some students from Malappuram and Ernakulam, Justice P.B Suresh Kumar observed that it was trite law that larger public interest of the community should give way to individual apprehension of violation of human rights and right to life guaranteed under Article 21.
The court added that where there was a clash of two fundamental rights, the right which would advance public morality or public interest alone be enforced through the process of court.
The petitioners, students, contended that vaccine was not compulsory and the right to life guaranteed to them under Article 21 of the Constitution, especially the right to privacy, gave them freedom to abstain from taking the vaccine. Hence, the order insisting on vaccination was unconstitutional.
The court also observed that the right of individuals did not in any manner affect the authority of the executive to take measures to restore normalcy to life in times of pandemic, and merely for the reason that the same gives certain advantages to the vaccinated, such measures cannot be challenged as discriminatory by the unvaccinated.
