Polls in the time of a pandemic, compounded by a vaccine conundrum and spiralling Covid-19 cases, have been aggravated by the propensity of the populace to abandon face masks.

In a show of one-upmanship, political parties are striving to draw crowds to election rallies, yet no one sports a mask. This was an opportune time for politicians to caution the electorate to maintain pandemic protocol, but none of them appears to have anything but securing an assembly berth on their mind.

With the initiation of Covid-19 vaccination, even domestic air travel is back to the jostling, mask-abandoned-at-will, protocol-flouting melee.

Against this backdrop, the decision of the Delhi High Court judge, C. Hari Shankar, who travelled on a national carrier this month and found passengers refusing to use masks, to register a suo motu writ petition was a timely and necessary step.

During my last couple of flights, there were several passengers without masks or donning them like appendages under the chin. We had paid for aisle seats and the passenger in the middle seat next to me on a flight from Calcutta had to be coaxed into wearing his PPE gear. Even before we took off, he removed his mask and began to snore. Finally, I had to opt for a seat change.

Obstinate fellow passengers often refuse to comply despite repeated exhortations. So it was in the fitness of things that the Delhi High Court, acting on Justice Hari Shankar’s petition, said “it is constrained to pass the order because of an alarming situation which was witnessed” during the Air India flight from Calcutta to New Delhi on March 5.

In response, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation said on March 13 that passengers would be “de-boarded” from flights if they don’t wear masks properly inside the aircraft or follow “Covid-19 appropriate behavior”. Passengers violating protocol despite repeated warnings will be treated as “unruly”, the aviation regulator said and conveyed this to the Delhi High Court on March 17. The court then disposed of the petition.

As a result, passengers are now being handed over to the police for refusing to adhere to norms and wear masks. Hopefully this will act as a deterrent to insensitive and obtuse individuals.

In his petition, the judge had said: “It was only on repeated entreaties made (by me) to the offending passengers that they condescended to wear their masks properly... [T]he cabin crew... stated that they had directed all the passengers to wear masks, but were helpless in case they did not comply.”

Not just in the skies, there is concern on the ground too, with Covid cases peaking alarmingly again. Nilakshi Roy, professor of English at a college in Mumbai, was hospitalized with Covid-19 last month. “For all of us who have got vaccinated, awaiting their turn, or got Covid and antibodies, well... there’s no way of getting out of the face mask. There is really no alternative to protecting oneself and others by using the only thing that is proven: wearing the mask. I am isolating myself at home after a second bout of hospitalization after my first quarantine. I use the mask if I ever step out of the room or if anyone comes near my otherwise locked bedroom. And I will wear the mask at least till the year-end,” she stressed.

Octogenarian Manjusha Dasgupta of Calcutta, who has just been vaccinated, was categorical: “Mask is a must to keep Covid at bay.”

Headlines on the “record rise in active Covid cases” are back. With several states going into stringent control mode, the least we can do is adhere to safety measures. Thank you, Justice Hari Shankar, for taking a stand on the mask, which all of us should have, but didn’t.