Point of Law: There can be a direction to the petitioner to pay the cost within six weeks from today and the cost should be paid to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority (KELSA) which is doing a great job in the state of Kerala by helping the poor genuine litigants.

JUDGMENT :

P.V. KUNHIKRISHNAN, J.

1. This writ petition is filed with a prayer to declare that affixing the photograph of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India in the COVID-19 Vaccination Certificate of the petitioner is an infringement of his fundamental right. There is a further prayer to issue appropriate direction to the 1st respondent to issue the petitioner a COVID-19 vaccination certificate without the photograph of the Hon'ble Prime Minister in it, along with access to the COWIN platform, to generate such a certificate when needed.

Pleadings

2. The petitioner claims that he is an RTI activist and one of the State Coordinators of the National Campaign for the Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI). The petitioner also claims that he is an extension faculty of Kerala Institute of Local Administration and State Level master coach of the Jawaharlal Nehru Leadership Institute, New Delhi. It is the case of the petitioner that he was desirous of taking a vaccination against the Covid-19 pandemic. Since the Government of Kerala came out with a Government Order prohibiting non-vaccinated persons from visiting public places, the petitioner decided to get vaccination immediately. When the petitioner enter the COWIN (https://www.cowin.gov.in) app/site and upon registration in the COWIN app, the petitioner secured a slot for a paid vaccination in a private hospital in Kottayam District at Kerala on 4.8.2021. It is the case of the petitioner that, at the time of entry into COWIN portal, the petitioner was exposed to the landing page showing the colour picture of the Hon'ble Prime Minister of India Sri. Narendra Modi, along with a message “ARE YOU PROTECTED AGAINST COVID-19?” both in English and Hindi. The printout of the screenshot of the landing page of the COWIN site is marked as Ext.P1 in this writ petition. The petitioner took the first dose of Covid-19 and he was administered with the COVISHIELD vaccine by paying an amount of Rs. 750/-. It is the case of the petitioner that he was surprised to find that this certificate contains the colour photograph of the Hon'ble Prime Minister Sri. Narendra Modi. It is also the case of the petitioner that at the bottom half of the vaccination certificate, there is a message in the dual language of Malayalam and English with the words “MEDICINE AND STRICT CONTROLS” (in Malayalam) and “TOGETHER WITH INDIA WILL DEFEAT COVID-19” (in English). Below the above message, the name of the Hon'ble Prime Minister is mentioned. Ext.P2 is the certificate. The petitioner produced Ext.P3, the printout of the landing page of the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India and in it also a message has been widely mentioned as “largest vaccination campaign in the world” with a salute to the Hon'ble Prime Minister “Thank You P.M. Modi.” It is the case of the petitioner that even on the birthday of the Hon'ble Prime Minister which was celebrated on 18.9.2021, a nationwide campaign was carried out calling for a record number of vaccinations to be administered as a gift to the person who was gifted free vaccines to India. Ext.P4 is a printout of the screenshot of a Tweet of a Cabinet Minister in charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The petitioner also produced Ext.P5 which is a report in Economic Times E-Paper dated 15.9.2021. The report says that University Grants Commission (UGC) has asked the Government funded Universities and colleges to display banners and hoardings on free vaccination for all adults and a message thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a free vaccination. Ext.P6 is also a direction sent to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sanghathan, Bengaluru Region for schools in that region to display similar banners thanking the Hon'ble Prime Minister for the vaccinations for those above 18 years. Ext.P7 is the landing page of the 1st respondent Aarogya Sethu App in which also the photograph of the Hon'ble Prime Minister is there with a message “largest vaccine drive.....”

3. It