The Kerala High Court on Tuesday rejected a plea seeking to do away with prime minister Narendra Modi's photograph from Covid-19 vaccination certificates. The court maintained that citizens are duty-bound to respect the prime minister.
Justice PV Kunhikrishnan dismissed the petition with a hefty cost of one lakh rupees to be paid by the petitioner to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority within six weeks, Live Law reports.
The court observed, "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. 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 court further held that "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 plea was filed by a senior citizen and an RTI activist who was aggrieved by his vaccination certificate bearing the photograph of the Prime Minister.