Supreme Court queries on fairness, pricing nudge change in vaccine policy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement on Monday to centralise vaccine procurement and supply free inoculation to the 18-44 age group marks a U-turn, which comes only a week after a scathing 32-page Supreme Court order.

Grilling the Centre for its flawed vaccination policy, the court docket had nudged the federal government to right its course, advising that admitting one’s errors was an indication of power reasonably than weak spot.

The Supreme Court order of May 31, which was revealed on June 2, slammed the Centre on three cardinal points — decentralised procurement of vaccines, differential pricing and paid vaccination for residents in the 18-44 age group below its ‘Liberalised Vaccine Policy’.

Let us first take the facet of decentralised procurement. Under the liberalised policy launched in May, the Centre had decreased its vaccine procurement position to 50%, leaving the States to fend for themselves. The court docket questioned the rationale of the sudden change in policy and mentioned it wanted to check it on the touchstone of Article 14 (proper to equal therapy) of the Constitution.

Loss to residents

The court docket trashed the Centre’s argument that residents wouldn’t endure as a result of States have been paying for his or her vaccines. But the court docket reasoned that the cash for States to purchase the vaccines got here out of the general public exchequer. Hence, the citizen was certainly the loser.

Also learn: Why not purchase 100% vaccines for those who get low cost, Supreme Court asks Centre

On the second facet of differential pricing, the court docket questioned the Centre’s logic that it may purchase the vaccines for ₹150 per dose as a result of its orders have been cumbersome. The States needed to pay double.

The court docket requested the Centre then why it couldn’t purchase 100% of the vaccines as a substitute of asking States, already below nice monetary misery attributable to the pandemic, to purchase on their very own.

Budget allocation

It mentioned the Centre selected to cut back its vaccine procurement position to half though the Union Budget for Financial Year 2021-2022 had earmarked ₹35,000 crore for procuring vaccines.

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The PM’s announcement got here even because the court docket had requested the Centre to come back clear on how they’d to date spent the general public cash and why the funds couldn’t be utilised to vaccinate individuals aged 18-44 years at no cost.

The court docket had trashed the federal government’s argument that differential pricing was launched to spur a aggressive vaccine market in India. How was this attainable when the Centre had already pre-fixed with the producers the value and amount of vaccines required by every State?

On the third facet of creating the age 18-44 group pay for his or her vaccine, the court docket order mentioned, “The policy of the Central Government for conducting free vaccination for groups under the first two phases and replacing it with paid vaccination by the State/Union Territory Governments and private hospitals for the persons between 18-44 years is, prima facie, arbitrary and irrational”.