The Delhi High Court on April 12 will hear a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking directions to Centre and Delhi Government to remove the age limitations for deciding upon the beneficiaries of Covid-19 vaccination drive.
The division bench of DN Patel and Justice Jasmeet Singh will hear the matter on Monday. Petition also sought direction to concerned repondents to allow private entities participation in vaccination drive and carry out door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination in the NCT of Delhi in light of the extremely alarming situation of resurgence of coronavirus cases.
The petitioner Mrigank Mishra, a law student through advocates Kaushal Kumar, Harsh Ahuja, Aaditya Kapoor and Akashdeep Gupta stated that the current system of vaccination drive involves visitation to vaccination centres after securing an appointment on the Co-Win portal.
Further, the on-the-spot registrations are very limited in number and often lead to long queues. Certain classes of citizens including bed-ridden senior citizens, differently-abled persons, poor sections of the society are at disadvantage owing to the present system of vaccination drive.
In light of the alarming situation of rising coronavirus cases and the second wave which is more severe than the first wave, it is pertinent to boost the vaccination drive and for the same, the widening of involvement of private sector entities is necessary to facilitate rapid and mass vaccination and allow door-to-door vaccination of the citizens.
It is also necessary to remove/ relax the age restrictions in relation to the beneficiaries of vaccination drive since the increasing number of coronavirus cases are a concern for health and safety of every citizen, according to the petition.
The current vaccination drive covers only people above the age of 45 years who are eligible for vaccination by visiting the designated Covid-19 vaccination centres.
However, considering the ever-rising number of coronavirus cases, availability of infrastructure and resources, and in a situation where the governments have ruled out the possibilities of lockdown, expanding the reach of vaccination drive is the only solution to meet the ends, the plea states.
The plea is likely to come for hearing on next week also states that it is relevant to note here that several states including Delhi, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan have requested the Central Government to remove the age restrictions for the purposes of vaccination, however, the Central Government has denied the requests. Even the Indian Medical Association submitted requests to the government to remove the age barrier and involve more private entities for effective immunization of the population.
( With inputs from ANI )
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