Tripura High Court: The Division Bench of Akil Kureshi, CJ. and S. Talapatra, J., pursuant to their order on 31-05-2021 perused the affidavit submitted by the State administration and framed certain issues after hearing the counsel for the parties.
- The Court noticed that the Government had accepted their suggestion of publishing vaccination bulletin on daily basis. These details which would now be in public domain and easily accessible to the members of the public would certainly give idea of the precise position of the vaccination progress to the members of the public;
From the date of the bulletin, counsel for the petitioner and amicus curiae Mr Somik Deb pointed out that there was a severe shortage of vaccines for the persons in the age group of 18 to 44 years and very few people in this age group have been vaccinated. The Court held that the disproportionate distribution of vaccines in the age group where there is a severe shortage needs to be addressed by the State administration. Prima facie, such disparity could be on account of severe shortage of doses as compared to the persons eligible to receive and are willing to receive the vaccine and the requirement of online registration. We request the State administration to address this issue and to ensure that the vaccine doses whenever available for such age group are not monopolized by any region or class of citizens and that there is a more equitable distribution of such vaccines.
- In the second issue the Court dealt with the policy of the Government of allowing one relative per patient in Covid wards who can become potential carrier of the virus. The Court expected that the administration would take all necessary precautions while allowing any relative of the patient to enter the Covid ward.[Court on its own motion v. State, 2021 SCC OnLine Tri 303, decided on 04-06-2021]
Suchita Shukla, Editorial Assistant has reported this brief.