Centre Defends Vaccine Policy, Tells SC ‘Overzealous Intervention May Cause Unforeseen Consequences’
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New Delhi: The Centre submitted an affidavit defending its vaccine policy and told the Supreme Court that ‘judicial intervention can lead to unforeseen consequence’. The Centre’s vaccination policy has been widely criticised mainly for its price differences but also for the slow roll out and shortage faced by almost all states.
The affidavit was filed by the government in the suo motu case initiated by the Supreme Court to examine issues relating to COVID-19 management in the country.
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The Centre said that the rationale behind the new liberalised pricing policy for the COVID-19 vaccine is to ensure scaling up of vaccine coverage, incentivize vaccine manufacturers to rapidly scale up their production, and to attract new vaccine manufacturers, the Central government told the Supreme Court.
Defending its vaccine policy, the affidavit said: “The policy is framed as above which is just, equitable, non-discriminatory and based upon an intelligible differentiating factor between the two age groups (45 plus and below).”
The affidavit added: “This policy thus, conforms to mandate of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution of India and is made after several rounds of consultation and discussion with experts, State Government and vaccine manufacturers requiring no interference by this Court as while dealing with a pandemic of this magnitude, the Executive does have a room for free play in the joints, in larger public interest.”
Differences in Covid vaccine cost
The Supreme Court had asked the Centre about the differential pricing of the vaccine, in the April 30th hearing and emphasized that the vaccines are costlier for the state to procure them as opposed to the prices meant for Centre.
The Central government said that it has conducted informal consultations with vaccine manufacturers to ensure that the prices of vaccines are uniform for all the states so as to avoid any disparity resulting from one state buying the vaccine at a higher price than the other. It further defended, citizens between 18 to 44 years of age are also getting vaccination free of cost as all state governments have announced free vaccination for the age group. Thus, all citizens of all age groups will get free vaccination throughout the country.
Patent Act
The Court had asked the Centre to invoke compulsory licensing of provisions under the Patents Act to ensure availability of vaccines and drugs for which the Centre said that the main constraint is the availability of raw materials and essential inputs. Therefore, any additional permissions and licenses may not result in increased production immediately.
The government further stated, it is making all efforts to enhance the availability of Remdesivir by ramping up production and sourcing through imports. The government further stated that invoking the Patents Act 1970 or any other way will only prove to be counter productive.
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