The Supreme Court of India ruled on Monday that no one may be forced to get vaccinated against COVID-19 while adding that the central government’s Covid-19 vaccination programme ‘cannot be argued to be irrational or plainly arbitrary’. The Supreme Court has also directed the Centre to make available statistics on the potential negative consequences of these immunizations.
The decision was made in response to a petition submitted by Jacob Puliyel, who requested that the data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccinations and post-jab cases be made public. The present COVID-19 vaccine policy cannot be deemed to be plainly arbitrary and irrational, according to a bench of Justices, L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai, hearing the case. The Supreme Court ruled that Article 21 of the Constitution protects bodily autonomy and integrity.
‘Until the numbers are low, we recommend that relevant orders be implemented and that no restrictions on unvaccinated persons’ access to public spaces be placed, or that the same be recalled if it has not already been done,’ the bench noted. Regarding the segregation of vaccination trial data, subject to individual privacy, it said that in all studies done and to be undertaken in the future, all data must be made available to the public without delay. The Supreme Court further ordered the Centre to disclose any reports of vaccine-related adverse events from the public and clinicians on a publicly accessible basis without compromising individual data.
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