The Supreme Court today stayed the ongoing hearing related to Covid-19 vaccines in the Delhi and Bombay High Courts.
Taking note of the pleas of Serum Institute and Bharat Biotech, a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde sought responses from the Centre and others.
The two firms had said that high courts were conducting parallel proceedings on vaccine-related issues and they needed to be transferred to the top court for an authoritative judgement.
The bench also transferred to itself the vaccine-related case going on in the Delhi High Court.
The vaccine manufacturing firms have said different high courts are seeking data on how many vaccines are produced and when they will give vaccines to all.
The vaccine manufacturing firms have said different high courts are seeking data on how many vaccines are produced and when they will give vaccines to all.
The Delhi High Court on March 4 asked the Union government to explain the rationale behind limiting the current category of people eligible for receiving COVID-19 vaccination to those over the age 60 and to those above 45 with comorbidities.
“We are not utilising it fully. At the same time, we are donating, or selling it to foreign countries. There has to be a sense of urgency,” a bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rekha Palli observed.
The high court had directed the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech to disclose their capacities to manufacture their Covishield and Covaxin vaccines respectively and if they could scale up their capacity to accommodate the legal fraternity for vaccination.
