Delhi HC pulls up Centre over vaccines for 18-45 yrs group

The Delhi high court on Tuesday asked the Centre as to why it made a “wrong” declaration that it will vaccinate people between 18-45 years when “there is no vaccine available in the country”.

“These are not satisfactory systems. You initially started the vaccination of 45-60. And now you have introduced (the vaccine) for the 18 years when there is actually no vaccine available... Why did you announce vaccination for them? Why did you have to make... wrong declaration?” a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh asked.

Emphasising on the need to invest in the future, the court said, “We have to invest in the future. Our future is the people who are 18, below 18, and above 18; the youth of this country and we are sidetracking them. We want to vaccinate people who are 60, 70, 80, 90. We are prioritising them when this wave has shown that it is the younger people who have suffered so badly.

“… There are so many young bright people who have lost their lives. We have to actually protect the future. The younger lot which is the future is to be saved. We are on our way out. I don’t understand the policy at all,” the court remarked.

The Supreme Court on Monday also questioned the Centre’s vaccine policy, saying the government needs to “smell the coffee” and modify its policy that requires states to pay more for Covid-19 vaccines.

It also asked the Union government to ensure that the marginalised and rural population are not left out of the vaccination drive due to India’s digital divide.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the government, told the Supreme Court that the entire eligible population of the country would be vaccinated by the year-end.

According to the HT dashboard, India had administered over 215 million coronavirus vaccine doses by Monday.

During the day, 1,223,596 beneficiaries of the 18-45 age group received their first dose and 13,402 beneficiaries of the same age group received their second dose.

Cumulatively, 20,210,889 persons across 37 states/UTs have received their first dose and 23,491 have received their second dose since the start of Phase-3 of the vaccination drive.