SC asks Centre to revisit vax policy

Questioning the rationale behind the different vaccine prices and asking the Centre to consider revisiting its vaccine procurement and pricing policy, the Supreme Court has favoured a uniform price structure for the Covid vaccine, centralised procurement and decentralised distribution.

The court said that the current vaccine pricing and procurement policy will prima-facie be detrimental to the right to life.

“Leaving state governments to negotiate directly with manufacturers will result in chaos and uncertainty. Procurement should be centralised and distribution of vaccines across the country can be decentralised”, said a bench comprising Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, Justice L. Nageswara Rao and Justice S. Ravindra Bhat in their order passed on April 30.

“Prima-facie, the rationale method of proceeding in a manner consistent with the right to life (which includes the right to health) under Article 21 would be for the Union government to procure all vaccines and to negotiate the price with the manufacturers”, the court observed. Once the Centre allocates a quantity of vaccine to each state, “the latter will lift them and take up their distribution.”

However, the court said that it is not passing a “conclusive determination” on the constitutionality of the current policy, but “the manner in which the current policy has been framed would primafacie result in a detriment to the right to public health.” The court said “We believe that the Union government should consider revisiting its current vaccine policy to ensure that it withstands the scrutiny of Articles 14 and Article 21 of the Constitution.

The court in a number of posers to the government asked whether the Centre would revisit its policy by procuring 100% of the doses which could then be equitably disbursed to the states.

The court in its order, running into 64 pages, said that once the vaccination programme has been opened up for persons other than the 45 plus age group, “it would not be logical to impose the obligation to source vaccinations for the 18-44 age group on the state governments.”