Centre defends vax policy, says no room for court intervention

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 10

The Supreme Court on Monday deferred to May 13 the hearing on Covid crisis management due to technical glitches, even as the Centre turned down the court’s suggestion for uniform vaccine pricing, saying states have already announced free vaccination for all.

“The server is down today. We will go through the affidavits and keep the matter on Thursday,” said a Bench of Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice LN Rao and Justice SR Bhat as the proceedings got hit by technical glitches.

In an affidavit filed on late Sunday night, the Centre cautioned the SC against judicial interference in the matter and asked it to trust the wisdom of the executive which needed the discretion to formulate a policy in the larger interest.

Executive’s wisdom should be trusted

In view of the unprecedented and peculiar circumstances under which vaccination drive is devised as an executive policy, the wisdom of the executive should be trusted. — Union Government

“Any overzealous, though well-meaning judicial intervention, may lead to unforeseen and unintended consequences,” the affidavit submitted. The Centre also rejected the court’s suggestion to exercise its powers under the Patents Act — such as compulsory licensing or government authorisation — over Covid vaccines and medicines, saying it would be counter-productive at this stage.

The SC had earlier asked the Centre to reconsider its vaccine pricing policy as it would prima facie prove detrimental to the right to public health.

Defending its vaccination policy, the Centre said the price factor would not have any impact on the ultimate beneficiary since all state governments had declared they would be administering vaccines to their residents free of cost. The vaccine price was not only reasonable, but also uniform throughout India, it submitted.

“Due to consultations and ‘persuasion’ by the Centre, both Bharat Biotech and SII have declared their prices which are uniform for all state governments,” it said, adding, the new “Liberalised Pricing and Accelerated National Covid-19 Vaccination Strategy” would further ramp up the pace of vaccination.

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