DELHI COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS versus UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER

Citation: [2022] 2 S.C.R. 908 · Decided: 25-01-2022 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD · Disposal: Disposed off
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Judgment (excerpt)

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[2022] 2 S.C.R. 908
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DELHI COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND ANOTHER
(Writ Petition (Civil) No 572 of 2021)
JANUARY 25, 2022
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD AND
SANJIV KHANNA, JJ.]
Covid-19 vaccination: Vaccination of Pregnant Women and
Lactating Mothers – Petitioner seeking categorization of pregnant
women and lactating mothers as belonging to the high risk category
for the purposes of vaccination – Certain suggestions made by
petitioner raised issues of policy – The same required the government
to take decision, bearing in mind welfare, safety and dignity of
such class of women – The suggestions made by the petitioner
involved application of domain knowledge by experts in the area –
Court not in a position to take the decision unaided by an expert
determination – Union Government to place the matter before duly
constituted expert group to evaluate the suggestions – Writ petition
disposed of.
CIVIL ORIGINAL JURISDICTION: Writ Petition (Civil) No.
572 of 2021.
(UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA)
Ms. Vrinda Grover, Kumar Shanu, Soutik Banerjee, Ms. Ayushi
Rajput, Ms. Rangoli Seth, Prateek K Chadha, Advs. for the Petitioner.
Ms. Aishwarya Bhati, ASG, Gurmeet Singh Makker, Rajat Nair,
Kanu Agrawal, Ms. Deepabali Dutta, Ketan Paul, Advs. for the
Respondents.
Nilesh C. Ojha, Prem Sunder Jha, Ishwarlal S. Agarwal, Ms. Dipali
N. Ojha, Pratik Jain Saklecha, Shivam Mehra, Abhishek Mishra, Ms.
Sidhi A. Dhamnaskar, Ms. Snehal S. Surve, Ms. Poonam S. Rajbhar,
Ms. Deepika G. Jaiswal, Mangesh B. Dongre, Pritam Bishwas, Anant
Misra, Advs. for the Intervener.
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The Judgment of the Court was delivered by
DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD, J.
1. These proceedings under Article 32 of the Constitution have
been instituted by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights1.
The specific reliefs which have been sought concern the need to provide
effective access to vaccination to pregnant women and lactating mothers.
These reliefs can broadly be summarized as follows:
(i)
Categorization of pregnant women and lactating mothers
as belonging to the high risk category to be given priority in
vaccination;
(ii)
Their inclusion in the vaccination drives and setting up of a
task force to operationalize a standard operating procedure2
for monitoring of their health post vaccination;
(iii)
Developing educational materials and SOPs for women
belonging to this group to understand the effects of
vaccination and ensure informed consent;
(iv)
Creation of a registry for vaccinated pregnant women and
lactating mothers to allow effective and constant monitoring
of their health;
(v)
Setting up of separate vaccination centers to protect this
class of persons from untoward infection;
(vi)
Engaging Anganwadi centres and ASHA workers for
vaccination drives as a method of outreach particularly for
women belonging to underprivileged socio economic
backgrounds; and
(vii)
Providing an option on the Co-WIN portal so as to allow
pregnant women and lactating mothers to classify and
identify themselves such that they can be given priority while
providing slots for vaccination.
2. Initially, a preliminary affidavit was filed on 2 October 2021 by
the Additional Commissioner in the Union Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare3. The affidavit has detailed out steps taken for (i) constituting
1  “DCPCR”
2  “SOP”
3  “MoHFW”
DELHI COMMISSION FOR PROTECTION OF CHILD RIGHTS v. UNION OF
INDIA AND ANOTHER
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[2022] 2 S.C.R.
the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunization4 and National
Expert Group on Vaccination Administration for Covid-195; (ii) steps
taken for supporting the vaccination of pregnant women; (iii) steps taken
for tracking Adverse Events Following Immunization6; and (iv) support
provided through vaccination centres and ASHA and Anganwadi workers.
The affidavit states that:
(i)
Initially, pregnant women and lactating mothers were not
eligible for the COVID-19 vaccination as there was no
sufficient evidence regarding its safety and efficacy.
Subsequently, the World Health Organization and other
experts recommended that the benefits of the vaccine for
this group outweigh its potential risks;
(ii)
Based on the recommendations of experts, a national
consultation was held on the subject with representatives
of State Governments, medical colleges, Federation of
Obstetric and Gynecological Societies of India (FOG
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