Kerala High Court Admits Plea Alleging Unauthorised Lab Conducting Covid Tests At Calicut Airport

The Kerala High Court has admitted a plea alleging that an unauthorised lab is conducting Rapid-PCR Covid tests at the Calicut International Airport. The plea also challenged the airport's denial to accept the passenger's recent RT-PCR test results. 

Justice N. Nagaresh on Wednesday directed the respondents to file a counter-affidavit in the matter within 4 weeks. 

The plea was filed by a non-resident Indian (NRI) who has been working in Abu Dhabi for a decade. He submitted that his family was dependent on his salary for a living. 

The petitioner was in India for the last four months on leave and had planned to return a few days ago from the Calicut International Airport. 

Accordingly, he had undergone two RT-PCR tests within a week before boarding the flight, the results of which came back to be negative. One of these tests was taken two days before the flight.

Regardless, the petitioner was compelled to undergo a Rapid PCR test at the airport for Rs. 2,490. To his shock, he tested positive and was thereby forced to leave the airport premises.

Therefore, he argued that he is on the verge of losing his job after the respondents restrained him from travelling to Abu Dhabi.

"According to ICMR, Rt-PCR is the golden standard frontline test for diagnosis of Covid-19. When the petitioner carries an Rt-PCR negative certificate issued from an approved lab, forcing the petitioner to undergo another Rapid-PCR test from the airport is unauthorised and pointless," reads the petition. 

He added that he lost around Rs.15,000/- for ticket charges, travel expenses and expenses for different Covid-19 diagnoses. The airline company had refused to refund his ticket fare as well. 

It was also urged that the right to travel abroad is a part of the fundamental right to dignity and personal liberty. 

More importantly, it has been pointed out that after he was restrained from travelling, the petitioner enquired regarding the private lab at the airport. 

Pursuant to such enquiries, it was revealed that the said lab was not listed as approved according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) website. At the same time, the lab where the petitioner ran his earlier tests was listed thereon. 

Moreover, when the petitioner cross-checked his results by logging into ICMR's Covid Report Online Portal, the history of all his test results so far except the one at the airport were shown.

This implies that the lab has not furnished his test results to the ICMR yet, which violates the Guidelines and Advisories laid down by the ICMR.

"When the petitioner carried a test report showing a negative result that too issued in less than 48 hours, the respondents 5 and 6 should have allowed the petitioner to travel instead of forcing to conduct another test. Besides the same, the lab has got no approval from the authority to function at the airport."

On these grounds, the petitioner sought intervention from the Centre to regulate the Covid-19 tests conducted at the airport. 

Accordingly, the plea prays that the Court declare the respondents' act of restraining him from travelling abroad while carrying an Rt-PCR negative certificate was violative of his fundamental right to travel abroad.

He also sought direction to the respondents to issue guidelines with regard to Covid-19 diagnostic tests being conducted at airports in the country. 

Case Title: Muzammil Varikkottil v. Ministry of Civil Aviation & Others