Second citizen files judicial review against vaccine pass

A second judicial review to challenge the “no jab, no entry vaccine pass” was filed by a Hong Kong citizen last Friday, asking the court to revoke the policy set to take effect from Thursday next week.  

Under the “vaccine pass”, unvaccinated citizens will be banned from entering restaurants and a wide range of premises including religious venues, shopping malls, supermarkets, wet markets and hair salons.

Citizen Law Yee-mei filed a judicial review application to the High Court last Friday, asking the court to revoke the vaccine pass policy. 

She also wanted the court to prohibit Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor and health chief Sophia Chan Siu-chee from taking any action to implement the "vaccination pass" before the judicial review hearing.

Lam and Chan, as well as Secretary for Innovation and Technology Alfred Sit Wing-hang, were listed as proposed respondents on the writ.

Law said the vaccine pass arrangement made it impossible for her to take an estate agent license examination, which made her lose employment opportunities.

At the same time, the policy prohibited her from entering supermarkets and markets, depriving her of the right to buy food and daily necessities.

It also barred her from entering the court without legal representation. 

She added that the vaccination pass makes her unable to eat at restaurants near her workplace, and that she will have to go home for a meal or to buy takeaway.

She need to eat her takeaway somewhere, but at the same time she is barred from entering a lot of public areas without vaccination.

Law also requested the court to make the government reduce the number of premises regulated under the vaccine pass arrangement. 

Earlier last Tuesday, Wong Tai Sin resident Chung Sung-wong filed the city’s first judicial review against the vaccine pass, saying imposing restrictions on the unvaccinated but healthy citizens is discriminatory and unconstitutional.  

Instead of forcing people into getting jabs, authorities should promote a vegetarian diet, reading of Buddhist scriptures, and enhancing one’s immunity by kind acts, the man said.