Supreme Court Stays High Court Proceedings On COVID Vaccination Priority For Legal Fraternity

The Supreme Court  on Friday ordered a stay on proceedings before all High Courts in the cases regarding inclusion of legal fraternity in the priority list for COVID-19 vaccination.

A three-judge Bench of CJI, Justice Bopanna and Justice Ramasubramanian directed that the matter will be taken up after notice is served to the respondents in the both the transfer pleas, filed by Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech seeking transfer of similar cases to Supreme Court

During the hearing, the Bench inquired if notices have been served on the both pleas. Senior Advocate Harish Salve appearing for Serum Institute informed the Court that notice may not have been served in one plea. He informed that while the proceedings in Delhi High Court was stayed earlier, the SII has amended the petition to include the proceedings in the Bombay High Court as well. The Court was also urged to grant a stay on proceedings before all High Court.

The Court ordered :

"List the matters after two weeks.Service be complete in the meantime.There shall be stay of further proceedings before the High Court".

The Bench was hearing a PIL filed seeking inclusion of lawyers, judges and court-staff in the priority list for COVID vaccine. The Court was also hearing pleas by Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech seeking transfer of these cases to Supreme Court.

On March 18th the Court had issued notice in plea by Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech and had restrained Delhi High Court from proceeding with the suo moto case taken up to consider including legal fraternity in the vaccination priority list.

The bench had also granted permission to Serum Institute of India to amend its petition to cover similar petitions pending in other High Courts as well.

The drug companies had approached the top court against Delhi High Court's order to take a suo moto case to examine if judges, advocates and court-staff can be regarded as 'frontline warriors' for the purposes of vaccination priority. The Delhi High Court had sought affidavits from SII and Bharat Biotech on their capacities and directed the Union to explain the rationale behind the vaccine criteria.

The Bench had also expressed that the concerns of lawyers should be considered by the expert group constituted by the Centre to deal with vaccination, as lawyers have to come into contact with people to earn livelihood.

The present PIL filed by an advocate named Arvind Singh, seeks vaccination priority for legal fraternity, and has been opposed by the Centre stating that giving priority to a particular profession might be discriminatory.

The Government through its affidavit by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare submitted before the Court that it is not in larger interest of the nation that the Government starts sub classification based on profession, trade, or any other ground at this juncture.