‘Change Policies’: SC Grills Centre On Vaccination Drive, Dual Pricing & Inaccessibility In Rural India

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Central government on various policies and decisions regarding Covid-19 vaccines.  A 3-judge bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud, L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat was hearing the suo moto case on COVID issues including the re distribution of essential services and supplies during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The bench flagged up “various flaws” in the inoculation drive and criticised Centre for differential pricing, shortage of doses, and lack of access from rural areas of the country.

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The Solicitor General of India, Mr.Tushar Mehta told that these are policy issues on which the Court has limited judicial review power. To this, the bench slammed him saying, “We are not framing policy. There’s an order of 30th April that these are the problems. You will be flexible. You can’t just say that you’re the Centre and you know what’s right. We have a strong arm to come down on this.” 

Posing tough questions to the Centre, the top court asked about the rationale of the dual pricing and procurement policy of the COVID vaccines. 

“For entire population above 45, centre is procuring (vaccines) but for 18-44 there is bifurcation of procurement – 50 per cent available to states by manufacturers and price is fixed by the centre, and rest to be given to private hospitals. What is the (actual) basis for this? You are asking the States to pick up and compete with each other” the court said.

The Court also raised questions on the digital divide people in rural areas face while registering for the vaccine.

“What about the digital divide? For rural areas, you have said villagers can register on CoWin app through NGOs. Our law clerks and secretaries have tried to register on CoWin app, so we know how it works.” 

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Responding to this, Mehta told the court that registration is mandatory as a person needs to be traced for a second dose and as far as rural areas there are community centres where a person can get registered for vaccination. The bench questioned Mehta whether the government thinks that this process is viable and asked him to place the policy document on record.

The court said that it is high time “you must smell the coffee and what is happening across the country.” The three judge bench asked the Centre to know the ground situation and change the policy accordingly.