The Kerala HC on Tuesday rejected a plea seeking removal of PM Modi’s picture from the COVID-19 vaccine certificate, stating that citizens are duty-bound to respect the country’s Prime Minister.
The court also came down hard against the petitioner, imposing a penalty of Rs 1 lakh for filing a frivolous petition.
“The people elect the eligible persons among them and send them to the Parliament and the majority party will select their leader and he will be our Honourable Prime Minister for five years,” Justice P.V Kunhikrishnan said, adding, “till the next general election, he will be the Prime Minister of India…Therefore, according to me, it is the duty of the citizens to respect the Prime Minister of India, and of course, they can differ on the policies of the Government and even the political stand of the Prime Minister.”
The matter pertained to a petition filed by a senior citizen and an RTI activist who was unhappy with his vaccination certificate carrying the photograph of the country’s Prime Minister. The petitioner, in his plea, argued that the photograph of PM Modi on his COVID-19 vaccination certificate was an infringement of his fundamental rights.
However, the court rejected his contention, making scathing observations in its response. Slamming the petitioner, the court said, “What a fantastic argument! Is he not living in this country? The Prime Minister of India is not a person who entered the parliament house by breaking the roof of the parliament building. He came to power because of the mandate of the people. The Indian democracy is being praised by the world. The Prime Minister is elected because he has got people’s mandate.”
The court further noted that once the elections are over and the people of the country have given their mandate, the person ceases to be the leader of a political party and becomes the Prime Minister of the country. The court dismissed his petition and imposed a hefty fine of Rs 1 lakh on him.
Kerala HC dismisses petition seeking removal of PM Modi’s image from the COVID-19 vaccination certificate
It is notable to mention that this is not the first case heard by the Kerala HC over a petition seeking removal of PM Modi’s picture from the COVID-19 vaccination certificate. Listening to a similar petition filed earlier this month, the Kerala HC said other countries don’t have their Prime Minister’s picture on vaccine certificate because they are not proud of their Prime Minister like Indians are after a petitioner filed a plea seeking removal of Narendra Modi’s photograph from Covid vaccine certificates.
The acerbic remarks were made by the court after the petitioner contended that vaccination certificates issued in other countries do not contain the photographs of their respective leaders.
“They are not proud of their PM, we are proud of ours. He became PM because of the mandate of the people. We have different political opinions but he is still our prime minister,” the judge said.
