Plea In Kerala High Court Seeks Details Of Number Of Vaccines Supplied To Vaccine Centers Across The State

A Division Bench of Justices Raja Vijayaraghavan and MR Anitha considered that matter today over ZOOM, ordering it to be posted on Friday for further hearing.

After hearing the petitioner's submissions, Justice Vijayaraghavan orally remarked, "they (the state government) are trying their level best. With the available resources they are doing their level best and they are improving it upon..Suo motu Devan (Division Bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Dr Kauser Edappagath) has taken up, Supreme Court is also considering the matter on Thursday…I'll post it on Friday within which time Mr Sohan (the State Attorney) will come up with something"

In the order, the Bench however proceeded to direct the posting of the case after a week.

"We do not find any reason warranting issuance of any directions at this stage. Post after a week," the Order reads

In Court today, the petitioner's counsel Advocate R Leela referred to instances of overcrowding at vaccine centers and averred that the same could be averted if there was data relating to the number of vaccines supplied to each vaccine center.

Since the State Attorney was not present during the initial part of the hearing, Advocate K Rajkumar for the Central Government submitted that the State was allowing vaccinations only through the COWIN Portal so as to prevent overcrowding. Apart from this, the aspect of vaccine supplies was being considered by the Supreme Court in its suo motu case. 

Referring to the suo motu case registered to check overcrowding, taken up by another Division Bench of the Court, Advocate Rajkumar averred that everything was taken care of.

Also read - When Will Kerala Get Its Share Of Vaccines? Kerala High Court Asks Centre

At this juncture, Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan shared his screen, displaying the dashboard on the COWIN portal.

"All that she says is - if there are so many vaccines in Kerala, why can't you just show what is the supply ... That is what she is trying to say. For instance in Ernakulam, you say there are 103 sites, 91 government sites, 12 pvt sites. Total doses is 9,03,604. We have some 3.4 crore people out here. All that she says is, where is it being supplied, ...To show that on the dashboard is not a that much of a big deal (in Malayalam)"

Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan continued,

"Every person including me wants to know how much doses you have, when are the doses going to come and how you are going to vaccinate all these people..At least they should show that we have been allotted out of the 50% government share we have been allotted, …so people will understand how it is being sent to various places"

Advocate Leela then prayed that the accurate number of vaccines in each vaccine center be published, to which the Court responded saying that the State Government would be better placed to give information in this respect.

The Court therefore sought the State Attorney's response.

Around ten minutes later, State Attorney KV Sohan joined the hearing.

The State Attorney submitted that the fuss around registrations for vaccines lasted only two days and that people could register to book their vaccination slots.

Advocate Leela then proceeded to seek data on the number of doses being sent to each district, government and private vaccine sites, primary health centers etc.

She continued, seeking that the portal show that persons allotted a particular number series would alone be administered the vaccine on a particular day.

Hearing these submissions, Justice Vijayaraghavan said, "they are trying their level best. With the available resources they are doing their level best and they are improving it upon..Suo motu Devan (Division Bench of Justices Devan Ramachandran and Dr Kauser Edappagath) has taken up, Supreme Court is also considering the matter on Thursday…I'll post it on Friday within which time Mr Sohan will come up with something"

The State Attorney added to this, saying, "If the petitioner hears the daily briefing of CM…"

Justice Vijayaraghavan stated, "I can't ask her to go and hear, though I would like to, I can't ask her to do that!"

The State Attorney explained that he made this submission only because the State was functioning transparently, providing all necessary information.

"We are functioning in a very transparent manner and we are giving every data, every day we are doing it", the State Attorney said.

After this exchange, the Court directed that the matter be posted on Friday.

The petition filed by Prabhakaran TP through Advocate R Leela avers that the "absence of details guaranteeing the supply and availability of vaccine to fulfil the schedule of vaccination announced is creating chaos and confusion"

It reads,

"The act of the 1st Respondent (Central Government) in not publishing in public domain the matters relating to the production as well as vaccine quantity intended to be imported and also the calendar relating to the supply of vaccine is the blatant violation of the duty of the State towards the subjects."

Prabhakaran's plea hence prays for the publication of the vaccine schedule, the number of vaccines available in the open market, and directions to the State of Kerala to announce a weekly-supply calendar of vaccines in all Health Centres, Covid Vaccine Centers and Private Hospitals to reduce chaos and curb spot registrations.

Click here to download the order