Covid Vaccines Not Mandatory, Centre Tells Supreme Court

At the outset, Advocate General for Tamil Nadu Amit Anand Tiwari submitted that Tamil Nadu has come out with the vaccination mandate for the reason that vaccination against COVID-19 is essential to prevent serious disease in the population.

The Centre on Tuesday clarified in the Supreme Court that it has not made COVID-19 vaccines mandatory and has only said that the vaccination should be 100 per cent.

The clarification from Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, came after Additional Advocate General for Tamil Nadu Amit Anand Tiwari told a bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai that the union government had issued a mandate to us that 100 per cent people should be vaccinated.

"Milords one clarification... that the State of Tamil Nadu said they made it mandatory as the Centre said 100 per cent vaccination. This is not a mandate. The Centre has not issued any mandate, the stand of centre is that it should be 100 per cent but it is not a mandate," Mr Mehta told the top court which reserved its order on the plea seeking directions for disclosure of data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and post-jab cases.

At the outset, Mr Tiwari submitted that Tamil Nadu has come out with the vaccination mandate for the reason that vaccination against COVID-19 is essential to prevent serious disease in the population.