New Delhi: In a major decision amid the surge in Covid-19 cases across the country, a mask is made compulsory even if a person is driving alone in a car, the Delhi High Court passed the judgment on Wednesday.
Judge Pratibha M Singh announced the decision saying a car will be taken as a "public place". The judgment was announced at hearing a case involving fines for not wearing a mask while driving alone.
"Even if you are alone in the car, why object to wearing a mask? It is for your own safety," the judge had said. A single judge bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh dismissed writ petitions challenging the imposition of fines by the Delhi government on persons for not wearing mask while driving in personal vehicles. The Court said that the mask is like a "suraksha kavach" protecting both the person wearing it and those around.
Earlier in January, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) informed the Delhi High Court that it had not issued any guidelines on asking people to wear a mask while travelling alone in a vehicle.
The government then responded to an affidavit in an ongoing petition filed by Advocate Saurabh Sharma challenging the ₹500 challan issued to him for not wearing a mask while driving alone in his private car.
Meanwhile, India has registered over 1.15 lakh new Covid cases in the last 24 hours for first time since the beginning of the pandemic, during the second wave. The government also stated that the next four weeks are "very, very critical".
The 1,15,736 new infections in the last 24 hours have taken the country's total tally to over 1.28 crore. 630 deaths have pushed the total coronavirus death count to 1,66,177.