New Delhi:The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the Centre on whether the government could formulate a policy in connection with compensation for families of those whose deaths were linked to side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The matter was heard by a bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta. Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Centre, contended before the bench that COVID-19 vaccines are governed by a medical protocol formulated in line with best global practices.
The Centre’s counsel contended that only the disease of COVID-19 was declared a disaster and not deaths linked to the vaccines administered for the disease. The counsel stressed that there is no policy under the Disaster Management Act, which grants compensation for deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines.
Bhati said there is a protocol in place which involves AEFI (monitoring) mechanism, which examines what is the causation of death, whether it is directly linked etc.
The apex court orally observed that deaths due to the disease need not be treated differently from deaths linked to the administration of COVID-19 vaccines. "You cannot say they are not interlinked," the bench observed orally.
After hearing submissions, the bench asked the Centre to examine whether a policy could be framed to grant compensation for deaths linked to the COVID-19 vaccines as well. The bench asked the Centre’s counsel to come back with an answer in three weeks’ time, and scheduled the matter for a hearing on March 18.
The top court was hearing a matter, where a woman petitioner had claimed that her husband had died due to side effects of the COVID vaccine. In 2022, the petitioner approached the Kerala High Court seeking ex gratia compensation for her husband's untimely demise. The high court had ordered the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to frame a policy or guidelines for identifying cases of death due to the after-effects of COVID-19 vaccination in order to compensate the dependents of such victims. The Centre moved the apex court against the High Court directive. In 2023, the apex court stayed the High Court directive.
During the hearing on Tuesday, the Centre’s counsel said there cannot be a direction to frame a policy in a particular manner when the policy has already been framed and it has not covered them. The Centre’s counsel stressed that no compensation can be given by disaster management authorities to those who had died due to the side effects of the vaccine in rare cases.
The bench orally remarked that the Centre could have accepted the Kerala High Court order, and framed a policy. The bench observed that the government could have decided whether or not they are entitled to, and if they are entitled, then to what extent.
The petitioner’s counsel contended that why no compensation is being extended for the relatively small number of deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines when several lakhs have already been compensated on account of death by the disease.
