New Delhi: The Supreme Court will resume on Tuesday hearing arguments in the Covid-19 vaccine adverse effects case, in which the government’s stance on the inoculation drive has been challenged by two people who blame the vaccine for the death of their daughters.
In the last hearing in October, the government had sought dismissal of the petition filed in 2022 by Rachana Gangu (from Hyderabad) and Venugopalan Govindan (from Tamil Nadu), who alleged that their respective daughters– aged 19 and 20–died due to the adverse effects of the Covishield vaccine. However, the top court listed the matter for further hearing on November 26.
“Covid is long gone. Vaccination is long over,” the government counsel had told the court in October, seeking dismissal of the case.
However, the counsel for the parents said, “Tens of thousands of people have died, including children.” He said the government “lied to the people of India saying that it was absolutely safe”. “All the parents all across the country gave the information filed in this case. They said… this is 110% safe. You can take it,” the counsel said.
Hearing both sides, the judges posted the case for further hearing.
The government counsel reiterated that the government “only gave it free, but it was a voluntary vaccination programme”. The counsel said that “220 billion” vaccinations have been done in the country. She also mentioned, while seeking dismissal of the case, that the judges had earlier affirmed the vaccination programme in one of the cases.
Earlier, in an affidavit filed in the top court in response to the parents’ petition, the government had said that although it urged everyone to take the Covid-19 vaccine jab, it never forced anyone to get “vaccinated against their wishes”. It also said that the Covid-19 vaccination guidelines issued by the health ministry did not envisage vaccination without obtaining the consent of an individual.
The parents of the two young women had filed a rejoinder in the Supreme Court, refuting the government’s affidavit and alleging that the government had forced people to take Covid-19 vaccines through direct and indirect actions.
The parents sought fast-track courts and vaccine courts for swift justice to those injured by vaccines and their families.
They alleged that Covid-19 was made out to look like an unprecedented challenge to mankind, and vaccines were touted as the only way out of it by the government and experts, without necessary evidence.
According to the litigants, due to this “mass deception” by the government and the vaccine manufacturers and all those pushing the vaccine, no training was imparted to doctors to deal with adverse events.
“No recording of these adverse events was done anywhere in the country because all healthcare institutions were told that the vaccine did not have any significant side events,” the petitioners said in the rejoinder. “The petitioners were also never given any information about serious adverse events of Covid vaccine from the vaccinator.”
Besides seeking compensation, the parents, in their writ petition, sought appointment of an expert medical board independent of the government to forthwith investigate the deaths of their daughters, and to share the report of the investigation with them.
They also appealed the court to issue a direction to the proposed medical board to prepare a protocol for early detection and timely treatment for adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) due to Covid-19 vaccine.
In their rejoinder, they alleged that the government failed to heed any early warning signals within the country about potential adverse events.
They said the government affidavit was misleading as it failed to mention that the package inserts available at the time of vaccination of their daughters did not mention any information about thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS).
According to the parents, the government deliberately did not publicise the adverse effect of TTS and downplayed the importance of AEFI by suggesting only mild side-effects could occur.
