The Supreme Court in its order on the suo moto writ petition on the government's COVID-19 response, has raised several questions on the Centre's Liberalized Vaccination Policy.
The court called the policy of the Central government for conducting free vaccination themselves for groups under the first 2 phases, and replacing it with paid vaccination by the State/UT Governments and private hospitals for the persons between 18-44 years as " arbitrary and irrational."
The court observed that the Liberalized Vaccination Policy may not be able to yield the desired results of spurring competitive prices and higher quantities of vaccines.
"If the Central Government‟s unique monopolistic buyer position is the only reason for it receiving vaccines at a much lower rate from manufacturers, it is important for us to examine the rationality of the existing Liberalized Vaccination Policy against Article 14 of the Constitution, since it could place severe burdens, particularly on States/UTs suffering from financial distress," the Bench consisting of Justices DY Chandrachud, L Nageswara Rao and S Ravindra Bhat in its order said.
Currently, the government is purchasing vaccines at Rs 150 per dose for Covishield and Covaxin, while the State/UT Governments have to pay Rs 300 and Rs 400 per dose, respectively.
Vaccine pricing
The court questioned on the manner in which the vaccines are priced.
"...the R&D (research & development) cost and IP (intellectual property) have either been shared between the Central Government and the private manufacturer (in case of Covaxin) or the manufacturer has not invested in R&D of the vaccine (in case of Covishield), the manner in which the pricing of vaccines has been arrived at, with the Central Government refusing to intervene statutorily. The justification for intervening in pre-fixing procurement prices and quantities for States/UTs and private hospitals, but not imposing statutory price ceilings," the court said.
The court asked whether ICMR and Bharat Biotech have formally invited contracts for voluntary licensing and if so, whether they have received viable offers.
CoWIN
The court also expressed concern over CoWIN platform benefiting economically privileged sections of the society.
"We understand that this has been done while taking into account the ability of a certain section of the population to pay for their vaccination. However, the present system of allowing only digital registration and
booking of appointment on CoWIN, coupled with the current scarcity of vaccines, will ultimately ensure that initially all vaccines, whether free or paid, are first availed by the economically privileged sections of the society," the court said.
"As such, even those who may have been able to afford a vaccine, may opt for a free vaccine simply because of issues of availability, even if it would entail travelling to far-flung rural areas. Hence, any calculations of the economic ability of a given individual may not directly correspond to the vaccination route (paid/unpaid) they opt for," the court observed.
Vaccination data sought
The court sought data on the percentage of population that has been vaccinated (with one dose and both doses), as against eligible persons in the first three phases of the vaccination drive, including the percentage of rural population as well as the percentage of urban population so vaccinated.
It also sought complete data on the Central Government's purchase history of all the COVID-19 vaccines till date (Covaxin, Covishield and Sputnik V).
The Court ordered that the data should clarify: (a) the dates of all procurement orders placed by the Central government for all 3 vaccines; (b) the quantity of vaccines ordered as on each date; and (c) the projected date of supply.
The Court also asked the Centre to provide an outline for how and when the Central government seeks to vaccinate the remaining population in phases 1, 2 and 3 and the steps being taken by the Central Government to ensure drug availability for mucormycosis.
The Supreme Court also directed each of the State and UT Governments to also file an affidavit within 2 weeks, to confirm whether they are offering their population COVID-19 vaccine for free or not.
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