“Free Vaccination for All”; An achievement through Judicial

Review. Breaking the barrier Judiciary, itself has built.

Supreme Court in its recent Suo moto
case on Covid 19 issues issued a order that
harshly criticised the vaccine policy initiated
by the Government.
The previous vaccine policy followed
by the government were seriously flawed as
there were difference in the procuring price
between the central and state government and
the government at the centre didn’t initiate any action to fixing a uniform price for the
vaccine. While Health is a subject matter for the state to legislate on, it is still a
constitutional obligation for the Union to protect the health of the people.
The centre excluding the age group 18-44 from its free vaccine scheme is at the
first sight a arbitrary action and is outright a irrational one. In this pandemic period
any policy to protect the people must do equity and in this second wave the age group
that was most hit is the group that the centre decided to exclude from its scheme.
Also, the previous interactions between the government at the centre and the
Judiciary did not go well especially in the May 31 order where the Judiciary delved
into the policy matters relating to vaccine scheme. Where it questioned the history of
Vaccine purchase, policy maintained by the centre ton vaccine scheme and the reason
for not covering the population between the age group of 18-44 in its Rs. 35,000 crore
vaccine budget.
It is common knowledge in India that the Judiciary will not delve into matters
relating to policy making and the free reign is given to the executive and legislative to
decide on the policy. While this is not a barrier established by the constitution it is a
barrier established by the Judiciary itself to keep its influence away from the political
thicket.
While the court had maintained this barrier for a long time, its dissatisfaction
in the affidavit filed by the Centre and the mounting pressure by the state governments
had made it to breakdown the barrier to establish that the vaccine policy by the
Central government was “detrimental to the right to life and health" and ordered it to
rethink its policy to confirm to the mandates of Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.
This led the favourable change in the Vaccine policy of the central government
ensuring free vaccine for people of all age group. This shows us that the barriers that
the judiciary maintains are a reminder to itself and not a provision that can be
exploited by the government.
 This reinforces the fact that Judiciary is still the Custodian of Fundamental
Rights and will not be stopped by a mandate that was initiated to sure the separation of
powers when the rights of the people are at stake.