“The present scenario mandates restrictions which law permits but not at the cost of the lives of the citizens. Therefore, this order is thus unreasonable, unjust, unfair and biased. Hence, unconstitutional,” the Nagaland Law Students’ Federation said.
TFM Desk
The Nagaland Law Students’ Federation (NLSF) opposed the recent order passed by the Home Department, Government of Nagaland imposing compulsory inoculation or production of COVID-19 negative test report every 15 days by all the government employees in the Nagaland Civil Secretariat and Directorates, as the federation said it is firsthand abrogation of the basic structure of the constitution of India.
The demand to withheld the salaries and endorse leave without pay for the incumbent not being inoculated is ultra vires ab initio, it added.
“The present scenario mandates restrictions which law permits but not at the cost of the lives of the citizens. Therefore, this order is thus unreasonable, unjust, unfair and biased. Hence, unconstitutional,” the federation said in a release.
The federation contended that while considering the prerequisite for inoculations of the mass to limit and suppress the contagious virus, coerced inoculations of any substance is an interference with fundamental human rights that must be justified as necessary and proportionate. In circumstances, where the government coercing the population and its employees to inoculate when there are certain “contraindications” generating fear psychosis and minors, it is difficult to see any justification whatsoever, it added.
“Inoculation is voluntary, coercion is illegal; To inoculate is not a full proof guarantee that any said person will get infected with virus and not transmit”.
The federation also maintained that there are instances, several have died and suffered from serious adverse events after the first shot and also both the shots.
“If any attempt by forcing, coercing, luring or pressuring — No Pay, No Salary to inoculate infringing the activities of the citizen is a direct challenge to Article 21 and also a contempt of court”.
The federation further noted that the legal position settled by the Supreme Court and various High Courts in the country against forced inoculation and right to choose the health and treatment for oneself and one’s children is intelligible and that a person has the fundamental right to choose medication as per his or her choice.
As much as the populace may hold genuine fears and anxieties about inoculations, the federation maintained that one has the right to their personal and bodily autonomy irrespective of their thoughts about the inoculations. That being so, it is the “Intellectual dishonesty: sophistry and “Straw man fallacy” to state that inoculation is the only solution.”