High Court To Rule On Friday In Jab Exemption Review

A High Court judge said on Thursday he would make a decision in a judicial review case over the government's attempt to cancel 20,000 Covid vaccine exemption certificates by Friday afternoon.

Judge Russell Coleman said that in the meantime, the interim relief order he issued last week preventing the administration from cancelling exemptions issued by seven doctors would remain in force. The seven are all suspected of issuing the paperwork without holding proper medical consultations with the recipients.

The legal challenge was brought by Kwok Cheuk-kin, dubbed the king of judicial reviews because of his frequent legal challenges.

Hectar Pun, for Kwok, argued that the Prevention and Control Of Disease Ordinance doesn’t give the health minister the specific power to invalidate or overturn exemption certificates, and that even if he did have such a power, he had used it in this case without going through proper procedures.

He said that if Lo Chung-mau does have such power, he should’ve gone through the cases individually and verified the documents, rather than attempting to invalidate all 20,000.

The lawyer alleged that such a blanket decision amounted to a fettering of discretion.

Lo's counsel, Abraham Chan, countered that, during the public health emergency that is the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s simply not possible for the secretary to go through each case individually.

He argued that the minister does have broad powers under the ordinance to make administrative decisions during any such emergency.

Chan told the court that Lo had assessed the risks that may be posed by the holders of what he called the questionable certificates, and decided not to recognise the documents.

He stressed that the holders of the certificates are allowed to seek documentation through other doctors as long as they genuinely qualify for the medical exemptions.

The exemption certificates allow holders to enter premises where vaccination is normally a requirement, including government premises and restaurants.

After hearing the submissions, the judge said he would hand down his ruling by 4pm on Friday.