On Tuesday, Government Pleader Priyabhushan Kakade informed the judges that the State has withdrawn all the restrictions.
“All citizens are grateful for this Court’s intervention,” Advocate Nilesh Ojha appearing for the petitioner told the Bench.
Chief Justice Datta then sought to know if everyone was permitted in public transport now.
“Yes. Every restriction including masks etc has been withdrawn,” Kakade told the judges.
Ojha then pointed out that an aspect of his petition is yet to be decided.
“The other aspect is about the extortion and illegal collection of fines…They (authorities) claim to have done this collection (of fines) well within the rules…But there is no provision as such…They have recovered over ₹120 crore from citizens in Mumbai. Thus, the money should be paid back to the citizens as it was collected in breach of laws in this field,” he said.
To buttress his case, Ojha cited an order passed by the Supreme Court ordering the Uttar Pradesh government to refund the fines collected from those protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Source: Barandbench
