Give COVID-19 Vaccine To All Above 18 Years : Lawyer Files PIL In Supreme Court

In the wake of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a lawyer has filed a Public Interest Litigation(PIL) petition in the Supreme Court seeking COVID-19 vaccination for all above the age of 18 years.

Saying that widespread vaccination of all young and working population is essential to arrest the deadly surge of the coronovirus in its second wave, Advocate Rashmi Singh has filed the PIL.

A bench comprising Justices Ashok Bhushan and R Subhash Reddy will consider the petition for admission on Monday, April 19.

As per the present norms of the Central Government, COVID-19 vaccination is available only to those above the age of 45 years. The vaccination, which was opened to general public(other than frontline warriors) from March 1, was initially restricted to those aged above 60 years and those aged above 45 years with co-moribidities. From April 1, the vaccines were opened to all above the age of 45 years, irrespective of having co-morbidities.

The petitioner highlights that several experts, including the Indian Medical Association, have demanded the ramping up of COVID vaccination. Reference is made to certain experts, who advised that India needs to administer at least 10 million doses daily to tackle the situation.

The plea states :

"...the marginalized sections of the population including daily wagers, labourers as well as persons falling below poverty line also form a large part of the population falling within the age group of 18 years and above. It may be noted that such persons simply cannot survive without a source of livelihood which is likely to be taken away if a lockdown is imposed in view of the rising cases of the COVID-19 pandemic. In such a scenario, it is most respectfully urged that this Hon'ble Court may issue appropriate directions to the Respondent so as to make the vaccines available to all sections of population who are above the age of 18 years".

The petitioner argues that the denial of vaccines to those in the age bracket of 18-45 years is arbitrary, discriminatory and unreasonable, violating Article 14 of the Constitution. It is further argued that such denial results in infringement of right to health and right to life, resulting in the violation of Article 21 of the Constitution.

It is contended that the administration of the vaccine in itself takes between 6 to 8 weeks for both the doses and hence by the time the vaccine reaches the age group of 18 years and above the COVID-19 virus would have spread rapidly and may give rise to a situation.

Making the COVID-19 vaccine available to persons belonging to the age group of 18 years and above will immensely help in containing the spread of the COVID-19 virus as the same is more likely to be spread by the said age group since such persons constitute a majority of the working population that moves around and comes in contact with other people, the plea states.

The daily number of COVID-19 cases has been witnessing a steep increase over the past few days, and have reached two lakh now. Meanwhile, acute shortage of vaccines are being experienced in several states. In January, the Drug Controller General of India had approved the use of two vaccines, COVISHIELD and COVAXIN, manufactured by private companies Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech respectively.

Faced with the rising COVID-19 cases and shortage of vaccines, the India Government recently decided to approve those foreign vaccines that have been granted emergency approvals by the US, EU, UK and Japanese regulators, including those listed by the WHO. Russian vaccine Sputnik V has also been given approval for use in India. However, the foreign vaccines are yet to be made available within India.