Covid-19 Vaccination: Guidelines Do Not Allow Door-To-Door Drive For Now, Centre To Bombay HC

While stating that the policy was merely advisory in nature, the Union government had not asked states such as Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, which were conducting such drives, to roll them back.

Mumbai: On the door-to-door vaccination drive against Covid-19, the Centre on Monday responded to the Bombay High Court saying that the national guidelines do not at present allow such a drive. While stating that the policy was merely advisory in nature, it had not asked states such as Kerala, Odisha, Jharkhand, which were conducting such drives, to roll them back.

What’s the Centre’s stance?

Even as certain state governments and municipal bodies have went ahead to ignore the Centre’s advisory guidelines and conducting door-to-door vaccination for special categories of citizens, the Union government’s counsel, Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh clearly said it was not possible yet to make such drives a part of the national policy.

The response has come amid the previous query posed by a bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni on what the Centre thought about the BMC’s request in conducting door-to-door vaccination for the elderly, bedridden, or such category of citizens.

In its response to the BMC's permission, the Union ministry of health and family welfare had already mentioned that the current advisory against such drives has been formulated based on the recommendations of experts.

The ASG urged the state to follow the national policy and requested the court to bear with the decision. “For the time being, it is not practical or possible," he said. The ASG said the Centre, however, kept improvising and updating its policy from time to time and perhaps, sometime in future, it might permit door-to-door vaccination drives.

What is the response of the High Court?

The HC then pointed out that in case Maharashtra, which has already expressed its desire to conduct door-to-door vaccination drives for the bedridden, decides to go ahead with it, then the state would stand on the same footing as the states mentioned above.

The bench also asked the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) if it would follow the Centre or the state's guidelines in case Maharashtra began a door-to-door drive.

"We will follow the state's guidelines. The state is thinking about the drive but issues like lack of manpower, since three persons will be needed to visit each person getting vaccinated, the requirement of the ambulance, and ensuring no wastage of vaccine, have to be considered," BMC counsel Anil Sakhre said.

On the other hand, the state's counsel, Gita Shastri, told HC she was yet to take instructions as to when a final decision would be taken.

The court was hearing a Public Interest Litigation filed by lawyer Dhruti Kapadia, seeking a door-to-door vaccination drive for citizens above 75 years of age, and for those who were specially abled or bedridden. The court will hear the plea further on June 22.

Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court had asked the Union government to look at the door-to-door vaccination programme carried out successfully by Kerala and Jammu and Kashmir, and make a sound decision on its present policy that states door-to-door vaccination was not possible.

(With PTI inputs)