At a time when long queues in front of Covid vaccination centres has become a familiar sight simultaneous to sunrise and people's patience seems to be on the verge of extinction, it's the Supreme Court that has been religiously ringing the bell. On Monday it did once more, drawing the Centre's attention to the long list of 'flaws' in Covid vaccination process. It will need a painstaking searching to find out when a government at the Centre last faced such back-to-back rounds of ire of the apex court over a single issue. 

 

A few weeks ago a grand plan claiming that more than 200 crore doses of vaccines will be available by the year end which is adequate for inoculating the eligible population in full was announced by the Health Ministry. On Sunday, it was also emphatically announced that 12 crore doses will be available during June itself. However, that all these promises have fallen short in earning the SC's confidence is evident from the sharp words the Solicitor General representing the government faced today. "We are asking you to please wake up and smell the coffee and see what's happening across the country", the government's counsel was told. The 3-judge bench on April 30 along with other matters relating to the pandemic drew special attention to the vaccination policy. The prima facie observation was that it was detrimental to the right to health of citizens guaranteed under Articles 14 and 21 of the Constitution. Although it wasn't a legally-binding directive, the apex court suggested the Centre to explore options like compulsory licensing of COVID vaccines to tide over prevailing exigencies. It's know to all what the content of the affidavit submitted by the Centre as a response was- besides asserting the vaccination policy in no way breaches the health rights enjoyed by people under the said Articles, it did its best to thwart a possible judicial review, contending that a judicial intervention in a health issue "may lead to unforeseen and unintended consequences". However, from today's mood, it seems the SC will not remain a fence sitter. The 'points' which by now have become contentious rather than merely critical were taken up once more. Regarding compulsory online registration clause for the 18-44 age slab, the court's observation was: "You keep saying digital India, digital India, but you are not aware of the ground realities." The digital divide has kept a large part of rural India on the leeward side of the digital wave and thanks to judiciary, the issue has received attention. The proceedings also touched all other core issues like differential pricing formula, procurement of vaccines by states directly from manufacturers etc.

 

It has been a day of 'tough questions' for the Centre. However, in the next hearing two weeks later, it's going to be a round of tougher questions probably.