Supreme court refuses to pass door-to-door vaccination order

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 8

The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to entertain a petition which wanted all Covid-19 deaths during the second wave of the pandemic to be presumed as a result of medical negligence and sought compensation for the kin of those who died.

“To assume that each death due to Covid-19 took place due to negligence is too much. The second wave had such an impact across the country that it cannot be presumed that all deaths happened due to negligence.

Courts cannot have a presumption that all Covid deaths happened due to medical negligence, which your petition does.” a Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud said. It asked the petitioner Deepak Raj Singh to approach the competent authority with his suggestions. The Bench said it had already passed an order in June to the National Disaster Management Authority to recommend within six weeks appropriate guidelines for ex gratia assistance on account of loss of life to the family members of those who died due to Covid-19. “The government is yet to come out with the policy. If you have any suggestion with regard to implementation of that policy, you can approach the competent authority,” it said.

The Bench also refused to pass a general order to the authorities for door-to-door vaccination, saying it was “not feasible”.

“With one brush you want an order for the entire country. The vaccination drive is already in progress and over 60 per cent of the population has been administered the first dose,’ the Bench told the counsel for petitioner Youth Bar Association. Terming it a matter of governance, the Bench said it couldn’t scrap the existing policy.

It sought to highlight the fact that the situation in Ladakh was different from that in Kerala, Uttar Pradesh or any other state. Similarly, in urban areas, the situation was different from that in rural areas, it said, adding that “there are different kinds of problems in every state in this vast country.”

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