NEWS: Supreme Court seeks response from Central government on disclosure of COVID Vaccine trial data

By Legal Wires 4 Minutes Read

The Supreme Court issued notice on a PIL to stop the coercive mandate issued by various governments for vaccination and seeking public disclosure of clinical trial data and post-vaccination efficacy data of COVID vaccines.

The apex court issued notice to the Union of India, the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Drug Controller of India, and vaccine manufacturers Bharat Biotech Ltd and Serum Institute of India.

Dr. Jacob Puliyel v. Union of India

A division bench comprising of Justice L Nageshwara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose was hearing a petition filed by Dr. Jacob Puliyel.

The plea by Dr. Jacob Puliyel, former member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, prayed for a declaration that mandating vaccination for COVID, in any manner whatsoever, even by way of making it a precondition for accessing any benefits or services, is a violation of rights of citizens and unconstitutional.

Petitioner’s counsel Advocate Prashant Bhushan said “Coercing people to take the vaccines on pain of losing their jobs or access to essential services, which has begun to happen in many parts of the country, is a violation of the fundamental rights of people, especially in a situation where emergency approvals have been given to vaccines without full and adequate testing and without any transparency of the trial data and post-vaccination data.”

While the government has clearly stated in numerous RTIs that Covid vaccines are voluntary, there are many instances from across the country where now various authorities are mandating the vaccines, the plea added.

He also pointed out that while the government has maintained that taking vaccine is voluntary, it denies essential services who are not vaccinated.

The plea also alleged that the vaccines currently being administered have not been adequately tested for safety or efficacy are now licensed under Emergency Use Authorisation without the data being disclosed to the public.

Prashant Bhushan said that the clinical trials require to be published by the Helsinki declaration, which has been adopted by ICMR and the WHO.
He submitted “I’m not saying that Emergency Use Authorization cannot be given. I’m saying that the data needs to be put out. And the post-vaccination data needs to be put out. And the post-vaccination data needs to be put out. I’m not asking for vaccination to be halted.”

The bench remarked “This country is fighting vaccine shortage. Now we are on a different tangent. Let vaccination go on and we don’t want to stop this.”

It won’t pass any orders against vaccination now, said the bench.