12-year-old moves court, seeks jabs for those below 18

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Friday will hear a plea by a 12-year-old seeking direction to the Centre and the Delhi government to immediately vaccinate children between the ages of 12-17 in the city.

The plea, filed by Tia Gupta through advocate Abhinav Mukherjee, has also demanded that vaccination be prioritised for parents having children up to 17 years of age.

The petition, listed before a bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh, said that data from across the country, including Delhi, has shown that between April 2021 to May 2021, the number of youngsters being infected from Covid 19 has “risen tremendously”.

“There are also reports of many children left orphaned due to deaths of their parents,” the plea said, contending that the vaccine policy of India against

Covid-19 has failed to factor in children or parents of children who are a vulnerable section of society for vaccination against the deadly virus.

Meanwhile, the high court sought responses from the Centre and Delhi government on a plea seeking directions to them to ensure adequate supply of Covid-19 vaccine for the residents, especially in 18-44 age groups, of the national capital.

A bench of chief justice DN Patel and justice Jyoti Singh issued notice to the ministry of home affairs and the Delhi government seeking their stand on the plea by a lawyer who has argued that the residents of the national capital should not suffer as result of the “blame game” between the two governments.

The lawyer, Vivek Gaur, 43, argued while the Delhi government claims it has placed an order of over 13.4 million doses of the vaccines with the Centre, the Centre has claimed no such order has been placed.