New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to carry out a periodic review of the Covid situation to decide on the norms on wearing masks during air travel while complying with the instructions issued by the central government on account of the pandemic.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, while dealing with an application favouring the relaxation of the mandate about wearing of masks on flights, said that although there are very few cases of the virus now, the court was not an expert body that can deal with such an issue.
Meanwhile, India logged 16,935 new infections taking the total tally of Covid cases to 4,37,67,534, while the daily positivity rate was recorded above six per cent after 161 days, according to the Union Health ministry data updated on Monday.
The active cases have increased to 1,44,264, while the death toll has climbed to 5,25,760 with 51 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated.
The active cases comprise 0.33 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid recovery rate was recorded at 98.47 per cent, the ministry said. An increase of 815 cases has been recorded in the active Covid caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 6.48 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 4.58 per cent, according to the ministry. The bench, on the other hand, also comprising Justice Subramonium Prasad, stated that the court can only ensure compliance with the existing rules framed by the expert bodies and recorded DGCA's statement that it has imposed fines on several people for violating Covid norms.
The court was hearing an application by NGO 'Bridging The Gap Foundation', filed in a PIL which was registered following the experience of a sitting judge of the high court who travelled on a domestic flight during the pandemic.
The applicant, represented by advocate Somnath Bharti, said that norms concerning the mandatory wearing of masks have been updated all over the world and the mandate needs to be reviewed here also as on one hand, a passenger is asked to wear a mask on a flight but on the other hand, he is permitted to remove it if he "keeps sipping coffee" throughout his journey.
"DGCA will look into it and pass orders...Things have changed. Now there is no Covid. There are very few cases," the court said.
"The application is disposed of with a direction that DGCA shall carry out a periodic review and adhere to the instructions issued by the Government of India from time to time," the court added.