Supreme Court denies approval for revaccination with Covishield as Covaxin awaits WHO nod

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to direct the Central government to revaccinate people with Covishield who are fully vaccinated with Covaxin. Highlighting that it has no data of the side-effects on the people already vaccinated with Covaxin again being administered Covishield, the bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and BV Nagarathna said that it 'cannot play with the lives of the people'. 

The statement of the Justices came while hearing a petition filed by Advocate Kartik Seth that said that Covaxin was not approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and because people here are facing difficulty in getting permission to travel abroad, they should be administered Covishield. " We have read in newspapers that Bharat Biotech has filed an application with the World Health Organisation for recognition. Let us wait for the response of WHO. We will take up this matter post-Diwali vacation", the bench said.

'Cannot pass order just like that': The Supreme Court bench

Advocate Kartik Seth, appearing in person, contended that every day some students and people are willing to go abroad but they are denied entry as Covaxin is not recognised by the WHO. He said that under the present mechanism, a person vaccinated with Covaxin cannot register himself on the CoWIN portal to get the Covishield vaccine and a direction can be issued to the Centre in this regard. The bench said.

“We cannot pass a direction to administer another vaccine without any data. We understand your concern but let’s wait for the WHO’s response.”

The plea filed by Seth said that at the time of rolling out of Covaxin, the government did not make the public aware that it was not approved by WHO. It said that Bharat Biotech submitted its application for approval as late as April 2021 and in May people came to know many countries are not allowing entry of those who are vaccinated with vaccines other than those enlisted in WHO’s emergency use list.

The plea prayed for a direction to the concerned department and release of official data and reasons for the delay in getting approval to Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech. It also sought direction for disclosing the actual data and records to WHO to obtain approval in favor of Covaxin. 

(With PTI inputs)