COVID-19 vaccines: SC turns down plea regarding sale of fakes
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to entertain a plea seeking direction to the Centre for framing "strict" guidelines to prevent any chance of sale of fake coronavirus vaccines in India. A bench comprising Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian said that though it understood the "motivation" behind filing of the PIL, it cannot pass general directions.
'We cannot pass general directions'
"We understand your motivation but you file a concrete case. We cannot pass general directions. We are not the legislature," the bench told lawyer Vishal Tiwari who filed the plea in his personal capacity.
The plea was filed before the roll-out of vaccines
In the hearing conducted through video-conferencing, the bench said, "We will allow you (the lawyer) to withdraw with the liberty to file it afresh." Tiwari then decided to withdraw the plea which was filed before the roll-out of vaccines and had referred to the statement of the Secretary-General of INTERPOL to the effect that criminal organizations are planning to infiltrate or disrupt supply chains.
What did the plea say?
The plea said INTERPOL official also issued a global alert to law enforcement agencies of 194 member countries warning them to prepare for organized crime networks targeting COVID-19 vaccines, both physically and online. "Direct the respondent (Centre) to enact a strict law against the criminal act committed by selling or circulating the counterfeit coronavirus vaccine by any organization or individual," it had said.
It asked the Centre to issue strict guidelines and regulations
"Issue writ...directions to the respondent (Centre) to issue strict guidelines and regulations under Disaster Management Act or under any other law by constituting a special committee to prevent the chances of fake and counterfeit coronavirus vaccine selling/circulating and advertising by any organization, company, online apps," it said. It also sought directions to run awareness programs for citizens' safety against fake vaccine's danger.
