Private Car a Public Place, Mask Must even if Driving Alone: Delhi High Court

NEW DELHI: Terming a 'private care is a public place', the Delhi High Court on April 7 ruled that a mask is compulsory even if a person is driving alone in a car.

The Delhi High Court Judge, Pratibha M Singh while hearing petitioners who had challenged fines for not wearing a mask while driving alone said that the mask is a "Suraksha Kavach (safety armour)" for the person wearing it and those around.

"Even if you are alone in the car, why object to wearing a mask? It is for your own safety," the judge said. "The pandemic crisis has increased. Whether a person is vaccinated or not, they should wear masks," said the court.

Meanwhile, while the hearings was been underway, the Union Health Ministry had told the Court that there was no rule that a lone driver had to wear a mask. But every state had the right to make its own rules and enforce them, the ministry had asserted.

It is to be mentioned here that Delhi's ruling party- Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had argued in favour of masks for all in private or public vehicles and had also passed such an order in April last year.

The court order comes a day after Delhi reported 5,100 coronavirus cases in the biggest single-day Covid figure this year.

Earlier the Delhi High Court had imposed a 10 pm to 5 am night curfew till April 30 to tackle a steep rise in Covid infections and a day after the country reported over 1 lakh cases in a single day.

The "sudden increase in Covid-19 cases" and "high positivity rate" meant a night curfew was needed, the Delhi Government said in its order.

On the other hand, states like Maharashtra and Rajasthan have also launched night curfews to restrict movement in the middle of a spike in Covid cases across the country.

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