Recently, a petition was filed by a final year law student of Delhi University urging the government to prepare a policy or a draft which will help in providing vaccination to senior citizens and handicapped people via door to door services in Delhi. Mrigank Mishra, the petitioner along with his senior advocate Ashish Mohan, explains that due to the sudden rise in the covid 19 cases, with the second wave coming in its way, it is essential to speed up the process of vaccination drive. They also emphasized the role of the private sector in supplying the vaccines at a faster rate and door to door system as well.
However, Delhi High Court rejected their plea and supported the decision taken by the Centre and AAP government. Both the Justices Rajiv Sahai Endlaw and Amit Bansal believe that the filing of the PIL(public litigation system) is done for the sake of publicity. The high court said in the hearing that they don’t have the budget to deal with matters which require a huge amount of data.
Court has also asked the petitioner regarding the number of vaccines regulated by both government and private centres. He also enquired about the availability of the vaccines as well. Until and unless there arises a situation where the number of vaccines is in bulk, it is unnecessary to file such a petition to widen the vaccination drive, the court says. The court is under the impression that the petitioner didn’t do any proper research due to which the student is coming up with such baseless pleas.
The plea said that the current system of vaccination requires an appointment made through Co-Win Website. Some of them even have to stand in a long queue for the on the spot registration where it takes up a lot of time. This process poses a disadvantage to the people belonging to the poor section of society. Bedridden elderly people, disabled people are also included in the list.
Advocates Kushal Kumar, Harsh Ahuja, Aadtya Kapoor and Akash Deep Gupta too feel that giving relaxation to the age criterion will help in easing the vaccination drive. Moreover, everyone is affected by corona regardless of their age, they added.
The petition filed has termed the Union Ministries of Home Affairs and Health and Family Welfare and Delhi Government as parties.
Currency the age criterion of people for the vaccination is 45 and above is eligible for visiting the centres.
Given the current situation where the covid-19 cases are at their peak, consideration for the lockdown is impossible due to limited resources. The only way to curb the spread is through vaccination only.
Currently, Delhi has recorded over 13,500 covid cases in a day, says Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
