‘Aarogya Setu not a must for air, train travel’

‘Aarogya Setu not a must for air, train travel’

13/06/2020

The Union government on Friday told the Karnataka High Court that using the Aarogya Setu application was only an option and not mandatory for travelling by air and train; instead, travellers could submit a self-declaration form.

The statement was made on behalf of the Centre before a Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice E.S. Indiresh at the hearing of a PIL petition, filed by Anivar A. Aravind, a software engineer working for a non-profit organisation to protect people’s rights in the digital space.

The Centre’s latest guidelines have made the use of Aarogya Setu one of the options to travel by air or train; there is the other option of filling a self -declaration form, Additional Solicitor-General (Karnataka High Court) M.B. Naragund told the Bench.

He said the option to use Aarogya Setu was only advisory and not mandatory, and a passenger not having this application could travel by furnishing the details in the self-declaration form.

Following this, the Bench said it was not necessary to consider the petitioner’s contention that the application was made mandatory for air and train travel.

But it asked the Centre to file its objections to the other contentions — the application is mandatory for accessing any government service, its use has been enforced without the backing of law and it interferes with the right to privacy of users.

Further hearing has been adjourned till July 10.