PIL to include judicial staff in vaccine priority list: Details
The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a PIL seeking inclusion of judges, judicial staff, and lawyers in the priority category for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccine. A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian posted the petition, filed by an advocate, for hearing after two weeks.
Centre not considering claim to include judicial staff in list
The top court was hearing a PIL, filed by Arvind Singh, which said the Centre has not considered the claim of Judicial members, judicial staff, lawyers, and their staff to be included in the priority category of the group of the population for COVID-19 vaccine.
Judicial staff also providing essential services: Petition
"The purpose of the petition is to ensure that Judges, lawyers, court staff, and the staff of lawyers, who are also providing one of the essential services in the form of Judicial Administration, are included in priority category for COVID-19 vaccine administration," the plea said. "They ought to be treated at par with other essential service providers for purpose of vaccine administration," it added.
Priority list arbitrary, no set criteria followed: PIL
The PIL stated that the Centre has identified the population groups which are to be vaccinated first but the same is not based on any set criteria and apparently suffers from arbitrariness and non-application of mind.
Further problems identified in the lists by the plea
"The Operational Guidelines published by respondents nowhere provides for any mechanism and criteria upon which such priority population groups have been identified, showing arbitrariness," the plea said which was filed through advocate Rishi Sehgal. "The said decision of respondents is ad-hoc and not based on a rational basis," the plea added.
