Nobody loses anything; Centre on COVID-19 vaccine mandates

The ruling government opposed Supreme Court on the arguments that people are losing their jobs and rations allegedly due to the COVID-19 vaccine mandates issued by various states and authorities, saying nobody is “losing anything”. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told this to a bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai that was hearing a matter in which issues including disclosure of data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and vaccine mandates have been raised.

Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, said the aspect of vaccine mandates that are being issued by several states and other authorities is urgent as people are losing their jobs. According to the petitioner due to the mandate COVID 19, vaccine people are not able to move around freely as a result of these vaccine mandates. By opposing the argument Mehta told the bench that the petitioner has filed an application in the matter claiming that people are losing their jobs due to this.

During the hearing, the bench told Bhushan that all these instances, which the petitioner is bringing to its notice, might not be possible for the court to decide because there may be numerous situations. The bench said it would hear the matter finally and then decide it. The apex court had in August last year asked the Centre, Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute of India (SII) and others to respond to the plea seeking directions for disclosure of data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines as also on post-jab cases.