Johnson’s phone number had been online for 15 years

Revelations that British PM Boris Johnson’s personal mobile number was circulating online for 15 years raised national security concerns. Johnson had reportedly been still using that phone number until this week.

LONDON:

Supreme Court should not issue authorisation for using the patent for government purposes whereby the government could give compulsory licences for generics to manufacture remdesivir, favipiravir and tocilizumab after temporarily suspending the intellectual property rights.

“You can declare a national emergency and then use your powers under the Patents Act so that anybody can manufacture these drugs on your licences. This is a case where we should go for compulsory licensing. Look at statistics. Germany, Canada and many other countries have done the same thing. This is a public health emergency. You have no less than 10 PSUS that can take over and start manufacturing,” the bench told the S-G, asking for a response to this on the next date.

“Doha Declaration of TRIPS shows that member states can take such steps to protect right of public health. Why should the court not issue directions under Section 100 and Section 92 to enable generics to manufacture these drugs without the fear of legal action? Is the logistical concern more important than right to health?” asked the judges.

The bench added that under the existing legal regime, India could bypass the patent rules for remdesivir by importing the drug from Bangladesh, and could also take a licence from the neighbouring manufacturer to produce the drug in India.

About the vaccination programme, the bench questioned the difference in vaccine pricing for the Centre and states, and asked why citizens of the same country should be made to pay more based on when or where they were inoculated.the court urged the Centre to follow the model of the national immunisation programme, where the Centre negotiated with the vaccine manufacturers and bought vaccines for the entire country while the states took care of the transportation.

“Why isn’t the government buying 100% of doses? What is the rationale of Centre and state pricing? Ultimately it is for the citizens of the same country. You have created this duopoly of manufacturers and only Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech are producing these vaccines. But we cannot allow cooperative federalism when it comes to pricing of drugs. This is a national emergency. You place the order and let states lift it. You have been able to get at Rs 150 for 20 crore people. The same manufacturers are now charging states between Rs 400 and 600,” the court told Mehta.

It further noted that the vaccine companies were selling the vaccines at lower prices to foreign nations. “Why should we, as a nation, purchase it at a higher rate? There is no point of different prices,” the bench told Mehta. “We are talking about the pricing of the vaccines because we believe that the most marginalised of the people should get the vaccine free even if they are below 45,” added the court.

It also wanted to know from the government the investments it has made and advances given to the two companies -- Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech -- for research and innovation, as well as for increasing production of vaccines.

The bench asked Mehta how the government expected illiterate people and marginalised sections to register themselves on the centralised Cowin portal for inoculation when they neither had the knowledge nor the access.

Some of the other issues that the Centre needs to address by May 10 include the availability of beds, proactive testing, number of Covid care centres, adequacy of health care professionals, their protection and treatment, and helplines in every district. asked not to be named, said the vaccination of 18-44 will begin from 100 schools, and not government hospitals, with each institute hosting five session sites. Each site will be given 150 doses, suggesting there could be total capacity of 75,000 doses.

“It was decided to shift the centres from hospitals to nonhealthcare facilities such as schools because all these hospitals are now packed with Covid-19 patients and are already crowded. We recently received approval from the central government to open vaccination centres in schools and other such spaces. Had the drive continued in hospitals, there would have been an increased risk of people getting infected by Covid-19,” said this person, asking not to be named.

By May 7, the government will increase the number of schools to 274 -- one in each ward of Delhi, according to a document that lays out the blueprint of the drive.

Kejriwal said the Delhi government will procure 13.4 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines over the next three months. He added that 6.7 million doses will be procured from Serum Institute of India, which manufactures Covishield, the mainstay of India’s vaccination programme, and the remaining from Bharat Biotech, the manufacturer of Covaxin.

“We are trying our best that within the next three months, the entire population of Delhi gets vaccinated. We have formulated a plan and even the infrastructure needed for this is in place. Now it will depend on the two companies as to how swiftly they provide us with the vaccine,” he said.

Kejriwal added that, for its part, the government has laid out a road map in terms of increasing the number of centres and the support staff required.

“However, a lot also depends on whether the manufacturers are able to send us the doses in a timely manner without any delay. These 13.4 million doses will come over a period of three months and we have asked both the manufacturers for their schedules on supply of the demanded doses,” he said.

Several states have now said that they are looking at only mid-to-late May for deliveries, with some even claiming that they were yet to hear back from vaccine makers.

Experts and officials expect a rush for vaccines when the under-45 age group becomes eligible for doses on May 1. A sign of this was apparent on April 28, when over 10 million people registered on the CO-WIN platform in six hours after the option opened for the 18-44 age group.

Till now, only people 45 years of age and above, or health care and frontline workers such as police and firefighters, were eligible for doses.

The rush is likely to be fuelled by the current spike in cases, which has forced the Capital into a lockdown since April 17.

According to a second official, who asked not to be named, private hospitals have been asked to return all remaining doses provided by the government for the current vaccination drive meant for people above 45 after Friday’s vaccination and purchase their own shots.

Some private hospitals in Delhi said both vaccine manufacturers have told them they will have to wait to procure doses independently. The manufacturers have said they would first meet the orders placed by state governments and then those by private hospitals.

which the Supreme Court expanded the meaning of personal liberty to mean life with dignity, and ruled against any arbitrary action not only of the executive but also through any legislative act.

In 1997, Sorabjee was appointed as a special rapporteur on human rights in Nigeria. He later became a member of the United Nations Sub Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, and went on chair the commission from 1998 to 2004. Since 1998, he was a member of the United Nations Sub Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities. Sorabjee also served from 2000 to 2006 as a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague.

He was decorated with India’s second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, in 2002.

Jazz, his first love

Known for his association with human rights cases, Sorabjee began his practice in 1953 at the Bombay high court. In 1971, the high court designated him as a senior counsel. He served as the solicitor general of India from 1977 to 1980 to became the country’s attorney general first from 1989 to 1990, and then from 1998 to 2004.

But jazz, as Sorabjee would often say, was his first love.

He developed an interest in jazz by a happy accident, Naresh Fernandes writes in his book on the history of jazz in Mumbai, Taj Mahal Foxtrot: The story of Bombay’s jazz age. The salesman at Rhythm House – a famous music shop that was set up in the late 1940s and shut shop a few years ago – gave Sorabjee a recording of Benny Goodman Trio’s “Tiger Rag” instead of Brahm’s “Hungarian Dance No. 5”, as asked for. “The first playing of the record had an electric effect, especially the sound of Benny’s clarinet and the feeling of spontaneity throughout the performance,” the book quotes Sorabjee.

Sorabjee also began to take clarinet lessons from famous jazz musician Hal Green, and performed at amateur concerts. During the war years, he and a group of boys from his school, St Xavier’s High School at Dhobi Talao, would tune into Radio SEAC that would host jazz music shows. This group started what was the country’s first jazz magazine, Blue Rhythm, in 1952 (the magazine lasted a year).

“We would listen to the greats, who made up what was called contemporary jazz in the 1960s like Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie, and Duke Ellington. Not many know but Soli’s love for jazz started during his school days,” said former advertising executive Stanley Pinto, who was also a jazz pianist and hosted jazz concerts in then Calcutta in the 1970s and 80s.

Though he stopped playing the clarinet because of breathing problems, Sorabjee believed jazz deeply influenced the way he practised law. He would say it helped him improvise as the situation demanded in court.

Tributes pour in

Tributes started pouring in as the news of Sorabjee’s death broke. Prime Minister Narendra Modi called him an outstanding lawyer and intellectual.

President Ram Nath Kovind said India has lost an “icon of its legal system”.

Chief Justice of India NV Ramana said, “In his (Sorabjee) nearly 68-year long association with judicial world, he made immeasurable contribution in enriching the global jurisprudence of human rights and fundamental rights.”

Attorney general KK Venug opal told HT, “He was one of the best constitutional lawyers. He was a strong defender of the fundamental rights. His parting is a great loss to the entire legal community and a big personal loss to me.”