'India The Only Country Leaving COVID Vaccine Price To Manufacturers' : Plea In Kerala High Court Challenges Centre's Vaccination Policy

A writ petition has been filed in the Kerala High Court challenging the Central Government's new vaccination policy on the ground the differentiated pricing for Centre and States allowed by it is arbitrary and discriminatory.The petition filed by Advocate CP Pramod, a member of Communist Party of India(Marxist) who had contested from Palakkad constituency in the assembly polls as a Left Democratic Front candidate, contends that the policy excludes persons in the age group of 18-45 years from the free vaccine quota of the Centre, which amounts to illegal discrimination. Among other grounds, the petition filed through Advocates Athul Shaji and Anwin John Antony assails the differentiated pricing for the vaccines, the deviation from the principle that vaccines have to be procured at the Central level for distribution to the states, and leaving the States to compete for the vaccines in the open market. The exclusion of citizens aged below 45 (who comprise 79% of the population) - from eligibility for free vaccines is an unreasonable classification, amounting to hostile discrimination under Article 14 and "is wholly prejudicial to development of Herd Immunity by way of Universal Immunisation", the petitioner urges in addition. "It is understood that India is the only country wherein pricing of COVID vaccines have been left to the manufacturers. This stand of the Central Government has resulted in profiteering of Manufacturers through the sale of COVID vaccines, which have been approved through fast track process and authorised for emergency use as a life saving measure," the petition reads. At the outset, the petition avers that the Centre is statutorily bound by the provisions of the Disaster Management Act for mitigation of disaster. Because the universal immunisation process is the only remedy available for the mitigation of the disaster at hand, the Union Government is bound to procure the vaccines for COVID from its manufacturers at fair price, for distribution to the States, it is argued. Additionally, Promod's plea brings in question the act of leaving the states to compete for the vaccine in the open market after the Centre took over pandemic management, terming the same arbitrary and illegal. Asserting that the new vaccine policy constitutes a deviation from the Universal Immunisation Programme, it is argued, "There is no prudent or satisfactory reason, in Exhibit P2, for deviation from Exhibit P6 Policy, which mandates that the vaccines for Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) have to be procured at the Central Level for distribution to the States, and such deviation cannot be said to be in the welfare of the citizens of the country." Significantly, the plea takes a specific stance that the differentiated pricings for vaccinations are "not on the basis of any scientific or other studies". It is alleged that the scheme is only a cross subsidy for making available 50% vaccines to the Central Government at the rate of Rs. 150 per dose. "The rate at which 50% vaccines manufactured will be made available States and others is left to the discretion of the manufacturers, making it subject to, the compulsions of the market and the profiteering motives of the manufacturers, overriding the health concerns of the vast majority of the citizens of the Country", it is posited. The petitioner makes the case that these differential prices would not only be violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, but would be arbitrary and illegal, "particularly when ultimately it is the public exchequer that would be at loss and the tax payer's money that is going to be expended, whether the vaccines are purchased by the Union Government or the State Government." Serum Institute of India has announced that it will sell the COVISHIELD vaccines to states at Rs 400 per dose and to private hospitals at Rs 600 per dose. The Centre is now procuring COVISHIELD at Rs 150 per dose. Bharat Biotech company has announced that it will sell COVAXIN to states at Rs 600 per dose and to private hospitals at Rs 1200 per dose. Another contention is that the consideration that the liberalized vaccine pricing would incentivize vaccine manufacturers to rapidly scale up their-production and attract new vaccine manufacturers is "totally extraneous" amid the pandemic in India. In this light, it is argued that the production of the said COVID vaccines, could have been scaled up by issuing directions to manufacturers rather than by liberalising its manufacture and "imposing burden on the common people". The petition is expected to be taken up tomorrow.CASE: CP Promod v. Union of India and Ors.Related Read : Arbitrariness Of Centre's COVID Vaccination Policy Which Forces States To Compete In Open Market For Vaccines

'India The Only Country Leaving COVID Vaccine Price To Manufacturers' : Plea In Kerala High Court Challenges Centre's Vaccination Policy

Lydia Suzanne Thomas

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