Kerala High Court on Tuesday dismissed a senior citizen’s petition seeking the removal of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s picture from his Covid vaccine certificate and slapped a fine of Rs 1 lakh on him for the “frivolous” plea.

The petitioner, RTI activist Peter Myaliparampil from Kottayam, had filed the plea in October citing infringement of his right to privacy, especially since he had to pay for his jabs because of the non-availability of free doses.

“The petitioner has a right to be left alone. The petitioner has a right not to be subject to messaging that to the petitioner appears no more than propaganda and publicity for an individual,” he had stated in the plea.

The single bench of Justice P.V. Kunhikrishnan on Tuesday dismissed the “frivolous” petition and ordered Myaliparampil to pay Rs 1 lakh within six weeks to the Kerala State Legal Services Authority that helps poor litigants.

“The contentions of the petitioner, in this case, cannot be accepted at all. According to my opinion, this is a frivolous petition filed with ulterior motives and I have a strong doubt that there is political agenda also to the petitioner. According to me, this is a publicity-oriented litigation. Therefore, this is a fit case that is to be dismissed with a heavy cost,” the high court ruled.

It ordered the Kerala State Legal Services Authority to take appropriate measures to recover the amount from the petitioner’s assets if he failed to pay the cost within the prescribed time.

The petitioner’s counsel, Ajit Joy, told The Telegraph that he would appeal against the judgment before a division bench of the high court shortly.

In its judgment, the court stated that a Prime Minister does not carry his party’s name as a prefix. “Nobody can say that a Prime Minister is a Congress Prime Minister or a BJP Prime Minister or the Prime Minister of any political party. 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,” Justice Kunhikrishnan said.

The court rejected Myaliparampil’s argument that he was compelled to view Modi’s picture on his vaccine certificate and hence it was a violation of his fundamental rights.

“There is no infringement of a fundamental right or any other right like compelled viewing, etc, in such a situation as alleged by the petitioner. These are frivolous contentions that should be curbed immediately,” it said.

The petitioner’s contention that vaccination certificates issued by other countries did not carry the pictures of their heads of government or state did not cut ice with the court either. “It deserves no answer according to me. Whether the photographs of the Prime Minister of a particular country is to be exhibited in their vaccination certificate is to be decided by that country,” the court stated.

The court noted that the petitioner could choose not to look at the picture of the Prime Minister. “Similarly, if the petitioner does not want to see his Prime Minister or if he is ashamed to see the picture of his Prime Minister, he can avert his eyes to the bottom side of the vaccine certificate,” the ruling said.

The judgement agreed with a citizens’ right to have difference in opinion, but noted they should be expressed in a democratic manner.

“There can be grievances against the policies of the government. There can be political differences with the views of the Prime Minister. But those views can be raised in a democratic manner. In the next general election, they can make use of it and remove him with people’s mandate,” the judge said.