A law banning people from wearing masks at protests is unconstitutional, a court ruled, dealing a setback to city authorities who imposed the measure under emergency powers to address increasingly violent antigovernment protests
HONG KONG (Pakistan Point News / Online - 18th November, 2019) A law banning people from wearing masks at protests is unconstitutional, a court ruled, dealing a setback to city authorities who imposed the measure under emergency powers to address increasingly violent antigovernment protests.Hong Kong's High Court said in its judgment Monday that the ban imposed on Oct. 4 is excessive, despite the turmoil engulfing the city. The legal challenge was made by a group of pro-democracy legislators in the city.
A Hong Kong court has declared the government's anti-mask law unconstitutional.High Court judges on Monday found the mask ban introduced under emergency legislation was "incompatible with the Basic Law", the city's mini-constitution.Justices Anderson Chow Ka-ming and Godfrey Lam Wan-ho ruled in favour of the 25 pan-democrats who challenged two laws that brought the ban into effect on October 5.The high-profile constitutional challenge centred on the colonial-era Emergency Regulations Ordinance and its derivative, the Prohibition On Face Covering Regulation , introduced by the government on the grounds of "public danger" in a bid to quell the wave of protests sparked by the now-withdrawn extradition bill.
