Hong Kong mask ban lifted: court refuses government request to suspend earlier ruling that it was unconstitutional

A Hong Kong court has lifted a ban on face masks by rejecting the government’s request to suspend an earlier order that declared it unconstitutional, but warned of uncertainty in light of a pending appeal.

Two Court of Appeal judges on Tuesday acknowledged “Hong Kong is in a state of public danger” and the government had presented a “reasonably arguable” appeal against a lower court ruling that the colonial-era emergency law, which empowered the ban, was unconstitutional when used in times of public danger.

However, they were not convinced the ban, introduced to tackle months of often-violent anti-government protests, was necessary to handle the law and order situation in the short term until the appeal was dealt with, and so rejected the administration’s application for exceptional measures to temporarily reinstate the ban or suspend the lower court declaration.

But acting chief judge of the High Court Jeremy Poon Shiu-chor, who penned the joint ruling with Court of Appeal vice-president Johnson Lam Man-hon, warned their decision “is not and should not be regarded as an encouragement or condonation for any person to cover their face” in situations previously covered by the ban.

“We have in no way determined the appeals one way or the other,” Poon wrote. “If one is to continue to wear masks ... in the meantime, he has to face the inherent risk of having acted contrary to the law should the [government] later succeed on appeal.”