Govt cannot let third pillar of democracy come to halt: SC
NEW DELHI: Citing massive vacancies of judges across the high courts in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the Centre for bringing the “third pillar of democracy to a standstill” by not appointing judges and said the government’s administration will also come to a standstill if this attitude continues.
NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Monday sought the Centre’s response on a petition seeking transparency of data on clinical trials conducted for Covid-19 vaccines even as it avoided passing any order that could add to vaccine hesitancy, noting the still grave pandemic situation in the country.
A bench of justices L Nageswara Rao and Aniruddha Bose said, “We will issue notice on the petition. But we don’t want that our notice should send a signal on (the) safety of the vaccines.”
The petition has been filed by Jacob Pulayil, a former member of the government’s apex body on immunisation, National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization, and is being argued by advocate Prashant Bhushan. It has named the Centre, Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation represented through Drug Controller General of India (DCGI), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech (Covaxin) and Serum Institute of India (Covishield) as respondents.
The petition has demanded that the government and DCGI provide segregated data for each of the phases of the clinical trials. Bhushan said though vaccination has not been made mandatory by the government, people are being deprived of their livelihood and access to essential services for not being vaccinated. Bhushan sought an interim stay on such mandates.
The bench said, “We cannot take responsibility for passing any order which can increase the number of casualties or endanger public health.”
The judges appreciated the petitioner for raising a good legal point on the personal autonomy of citizens and the right to their livelihood vis-à-vis their right to public health, but they did not lose sight of the “bigger picture”.