Rs 1 lakh fine for petition against PM Modi's pic on Covid vaccine certificate

The Prime Minister is the leader of the nation and not of a political party and citizens "need not be ashamed" to carry a vaccination certificate with his photograph and "morale boosting message", the Kerala High Court said on Tuesday and dismissed a plea seeking removal of PM's photo from the Covid-19 immunisation certificates.

"Nobody can say that a Prime Minister is a Congress Prime Minister or a BJP Prime Minister or the Prime Minister of any political party. But once a Prime Minister is elected as per the constitution, he is the Prime Minister of our country and that post should be the pride of every citizen.

".. they can differ on the policies of the government and even the political stand of the Prime Minister. But the citizens need not be ashamed to carry a vaccination certificate with the photograph of the Prime Minister with a morale boosting message, especially in this pandemic situation," the high court said.

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It also said that when Covid-19 pandemic can be eliminated only by vaccination, if the PM gave a message with his photograph, in the certificates, that with the help of medicine and strict control, India will defeat the virus, "what is wrong with it?" The court dismissed the petition with a cost of Rs 1 lakh, saying it was "frivolous", filed with "ulterior motives", "publicity oriented" and the petitioner probably also had a "political agenda".

"According to my opinion, this is a frivolous petition filed with ulterior motives and I have a strong doubt that there is a political agenda also to the petitioner. According to me, this is a publicity oriented litigation. Therefore, this is a fit case that is to be dismissed with a heavy cost," the judge said.

The court said in case of failure to deposit the cost within the stipulated period, KeLSA shall recover the amount from his assets by initiating revenue recovery proceedings against him.

It also said that the "petitioner should study the respect to be given to the Prime Minister and others by watching at least the parliamentary proceedings, which are available live on national TV".