A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has been moved in Delhi High Court seeking directions to the Centre, Delhi Government and others to formulate a policy to ensure that all persons who have been given first shot of COVID-19 vaccine should be given the second dose on priority.
The plea said that police shall ensure the process more specifically on different days, timings with the people taking the first dose in a separate line so that they are not put into inconvenience. "In this manner, chaos and spread of COVID-19 will be prevented and vaccination will be done smoothly," it said.
The plea also seeks direction to the respondents to issue directives so that vaccination drive for auto drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, ambulance drivers and people involved in public transport is given priority.
The petitioner Nazia Praveen, a lawyer, has also sought direction to respondents to direct the vaccine manufacturers to disclose the formula and open the source code such that other capable manufacturers are able to manufacture vaccine in order to cater to the need of the country.
It also seeks directions to waive clinical trials of foreign vaccines in terms of rule 101 of the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2018 so that all available foreign vaccines are available for usage.
"Dispense with the registration for vaccination on website and application for all poor and EWS class citizens so that they are also vaccinated besides literate population," it said.
The petitioner also prayed for directions to the respondents to add more vaccination centers and upgrade the infrastructure for streamlined vaccination.
The petitioner said that to achieve vaccination throughout the country, systematic planning and pragmatic approach is the need of the hour "more particularly when Union of India has given up its earlier vaccination agenda and have put it on respective state governments to purchase vaccine from open market from their own finances". It said Delhi and states have been "put under immense financial and administrative pressure".
It noted that there is no policy that gives priority to states suffering more due to COVID-19 infections. The petition is scheduled to come up for hearing on Tuesday by the bench of Justice DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh.
( With inputs from ANI )
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