Supreme Court to take up Centre’s affidavit on Covid management on May 13

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By LE Desk

New Delhi, May 10: The Supreme Court on Monday said it will go through the compliance affidavit filed by the Centre on its vaccination and hospitalisation policies. 

The top court, which is hearing a suo motu case on the management of the Covid-19 pandemic, will take up the matter next on May 13, The Indian Express reported.

The Centre filed the affidavit after the top court had asked the government to rethink its vaccine and healthcare policy during the Covid-19 pandemic. The top court had also directed the Centre to formulate within two weeks a national policy on admissions to hospitals in the wake of the second Covid wave.

In its affidavit, the central government has said that given the limited availability of vaccines, inoculating the entire population was not possible in one go due to the suddenness of the pandemic but it will ensure its “equitable distribution”.

The policy was “just, equitable, non-discriminatory and based upon an intelligible differentiating factor between the two age groups (45 plus and those below)”, it said.

Monday’s hearing in the top court had to be deferred due to some technical glitches in the virtual courtroom. A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, L N Rao and S Ravindra Bhat said, “Our server is down today. We judges had discussion among ourselves and have decided to take up the matter on Thursday.”

Before the hearing was wrapped for the day, Justice Chandrachud told the Solicitor General that two of the judges got the affidavit copy on Monday morning. Citing a report in The Indian Express, Justice Chandrachud said, “Mr SG, we got your affidavit late in the night my brothers got it in the morning.”

“For me, it was easier, I read the Indian Express and they had it before us,” a news website quoted him as saying.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that after they filed the affidavit, they served the copy to the state and it was very difficult to know from where the media got it.

https://indianexpress.com/article/india/supreme-court-centre-covid-affidavit-7309363/

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