The Delhi High Court has observed that India's full potential isn't being utilised for vaccinating its citizens with Covishield and Covaxin. While Serum Institute of India (SII) submitted that they had allocated 51 million doses to the Union Health Ministry for delivery abroad, the High Court held that newspaper reports suggest India is exporting vaccines even to "not so friendly" nations.
While SII told the court that they have already supplied 48 million doses in India, Bharat Biotech submitted that they don't have any excess vaccines which are unutilised, and any further capacity creation will be a time taking and capital intensive process.
Centre opposed any judicial intervention in its policy decision of allowing COVID vaccination only for senior citizens and people above the age of 45 with co-morbidities. Centre submitted that vaccination was being prioritised for groups of people based on medical parameters, and not on the basis of individual professions. Opposing the Bar Council's argument that people working in crowded and closed courtrooms need to be vaccinated on priority, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta argued that even people working at airports, railway stations and banks were working under similar conditions. Mehta assured the court that eventually everyone's turn will come to get vaccinated, and urged the court to defer the hearing for next week as the Supreme Court is going to consider a transfer petition with a similar request. Centre requested the court to not pass any orders as various High Courts were hearing similar petitions, and conflicting orders by different courts will create confusion.
President of the Supreme Court Bar Association, senior lawyer Vikas Singh urged the court to ensure that Centre doesn't export any more vaccines till all Indians are vaccinated. He submitted that the functioning of judiciary was important for the country, and argued that Centre was wrongly classifying people working with the judiciary with other people working in crowded spaces.
While the court didn't pass any orders, it observed that the judiciary is one of 3 major organs of the state and can't be compared to airports and bus depots. The bench held that the pandemic had impaired the functioning of the judiciary, and the plight of petitioners with pending cases and undertrials languishing in jails can't be ignored. Even as the court held that the risk of exposure was increasing for judiciary as physical courts resume, Centre submitted that even the other 2 wings of the state, the Legislature & the Executive, also haven't been vaccinated till now.
Centre also apprised the court of the operational difficulties if the total number of daily vaccinations were to increase manifold. Solicitor General argued that many areas of the country lack the infrastructure and amount of trained workforce which will be needed to speed up the vaccination drive. He spoke of the practical difficulties of allowing too many people to wait to be vaccinated at a healthcare centre in absence of social distancing, as others being vaccinated have to remain under observation for 30 minutes. Responding to the Delhi government's counsel who claimed that the national capital was ready to scale up the vaccination drive, Centre submitted that infrastructure in small towns and villages also needs to be kept in mind while dispatching vaccines.
The court will now hear this suo motu case on March 19, and decide if judges, lawyers and court staff can be declared as frontline workers in view of the proposed physical resumption of all courts in Delhi within the next few days. The court took up this suo motu case after a letter by the Bar Council of Delhi wanted vaccination on priority for the judiciary, without any limitations of age or physical condition.
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