Sushree Mohanty
The Supreme Court agreed to hear the petition seeking inclusion of members of the legal fraternity in COVID-19 vaccination list.
It additionally stated that the bench will consider the Public Interest Litigation filed by Mr. Arvind Singh on the same subject.
The plea was heard by a three bench judge presided by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde.
The petitioner had contended that the public authority and the government had considered the immunization for police, medical care staff, security faculty and income tax officials as a priority.
“Whatever they do culminates in the judiciary,” he further submitted.
The Bench including AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, listed the matter for further hearing following fourteen days time and reserved themselves from giving any other official notification.
“We will consider this issue,” they said.
In the month of January, the Supreme Court Bar Association wrote letters to the concerned public authority as well as Centre requesting inclusion of judges, legal staff and legal counsellors on the COVID-19 immunization priority list.
While hearing a case recently, senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi had urged Attorney General KK Venugopal to utilize his good workplaces and ethics with the public authority and allow for the immunization to legal advocates on priority.
On January 16, 2021, India started the world’s largest immunization drive and according to the report by Union Health Ministry, so far 85 lakh medical care staff and frontline workers have been vaccinated until now.
Those immunized include 61,54,894 medical care workers (Health Care Workers), out of whom 60,57,162 have been given the first shot of the vaccine and 98,118 have received the second shot, reported the Ministry
The vaccination drive for the second shot of COVID-19 began on February 13, 2021, for those recipients who have finished 28 days subsequent to being given the first shot.
