What About Vaccines For Those Without IDs, Court Asks Centre, State

The bench was hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) on ensuring greater access of the anti-COVID-19 vaccines to citizens, improved functioning of the CoWIN portal and other issues.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday asked the Maharashtra and Union governments what steps they had taken to inform citizens about the Centre's SOPs on COVID-19 vaccination for people who do not possess one of the seven identity cards prescribed for the purpose. A bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and G S Kulkarni also asked the Union government to inform the court of the steps taken to cover under its vaccination drive the people who were mentally ill and without a legal guardian and hence, not in a position to give informed consent for receiving the vaccine. The bench was hearing a bunch of Public Interest Litigations (PILs) on ensuring greater access of the anti-COVID-19 vaccines to citizens, improved functioning of the CoWIN portal and other issues. The petitioners informed the bench that the government had prescribed a list of seven recognised identity cards, including the Aadhaar and the PAN cards, for citizens to register for vaccination on the CoWIN portal.