The Court made these comments while hearing a PIL filed by two advocates – Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari – seeking a direction to the government to start a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination programme for senior and specially-abled citizens.
The Bombay High Court told the Centre on Wednesday that its approach against COVID-19, which is the society’s biggest enemy at present, should be “like a surgical strike” instead of standing at the borders waiting for the virus to come out.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni said the Union government’s new “near to home” vaccination programme was like waiting for the virus carrier to come to the Centre.
Chief Justice Datta said “Coronavirus is our biggest enemy. We need to strike it down. The enemy is residing in certain areas and in some people who are unable to come out. Your (government) approach should be like a surgical strike. You are standing at the borders waiting for the virus carrier to come to you. You are not entering the enemy territory,”
The Court made these comments while hearing a PIL filed by two advocates – Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari – seeking a direction to the government to start a door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination programme for senior citizens above the age of 75, specially-abled persons and those who are wheelchair-bound or bed-ridden.
The Union Government in its response said that door-to-door vaccinations aren’t possible currently. Instead, it said it has set up “near to home” vaccination centers.
The Bombay High Court then pointed out examples of the door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination programmes started by Kerala, Jammu and Kashmir, Bihar and Odisha and also a few municipal corporations like Vasai-Virar in Maharashtra.
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“Why should the same not be encouraged in other states across the country? The central government cannot clip the wings of those state governments and civic bodies who wish to do it (door-to-door vaccination) but are waiting for the Centre’s nod,” the court pointed out. It also questioned only why the west (of India) was waiting when the north, south and east states were carrying door-to-door vaccinations
The Bombay High Court also rapped the BMC, Mumbai’s civic body questioning as to how at the beginning of the vaccination drive a senior politician got his dose at his residence in Mumbai.
“My question to you (BMC) is at the very inception of the drive, we found that a very senior politician got the jab at his home in Mumbai. Who did it? The BMC or the state government? Somebody has to take the responsibility,” the Bombay High Court said.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on June 11.
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