A retired Hong Kong civil servant has won legal aid to continue challenging the government’s decision to quash more than 20,000 “questionable” Covid-19 vaccine exemption certificates, a move the courts have put on hold.

High-profile serial litigant Kwok Cheuk-kin waved a V-sign outside the High Court on Tuesday after winning an appeal against the Legal Aid Department’s refusal to support him in the judicial review to be heard on Thursday.

Kwok won the court’s permission earlier this month to initiate proceedings against what he called an abuse of power by health authorities.

Mr Justice Russell Coleman imposed a temporary ban last week preventing the government from invalidating the certificates issued by seven doctors alleged to have produced fraudulent documents.

Police officers investigate a clinic in Hing Wah Plaza, Chai Wan.

The certificates, which were to be annulled on October 12, will remain effective until the court determines whether health authorities indeed have the power to overturn their use.

A Health Bureau spokesman had earlier said the government would comply with the court’s order, but warned that the use of the documents would be recorded and law enforcement action taken against any violations.

Kwok applied for legal aid in anticipation of engaging a senior counsel and his opponent doing the same, but the department refused the request, saying he had no sufficient interest in the case.

“As [the applicant] was not issued with a specified medical exemption certificate by one of the registered medical practitioners in question, he is considered not having the legal standing to apply for judicial review of the decision in relation to the invalidation of the relevant medical exemption certificates,” a department spokesman said earlier.

High Court Master Kent Yee Kai-siu overruled that decision on Tuesday after the appeal was heard behind closed doors, the usual practice for such court sessions.

Kwok said outside the court that he had all along acted in the public interest and there was no reason to refuse legal aid in what he called a “must-win” case.

He stressed he was not urging everyone to avoid the jab, but only those who were medically unfit to receive inoculation.

“I am standing on the side of justice,” he said. “No cloud stays forever. One day, we will be able to see the blue bright sky.”

Police arrested six doctors last month for allegedly issuing vaccination exemption letters without conducting proper consultations. Two of the six doctors have been charged, with a seventh practitioner still wanted by the force.

At least 26 patients, including five civil servants, who were alleged to have bought the documents, have also been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.