Supreme Court pricks Centre's jab bubble

New Delhi: Highlighting "digital divide" between rural and urban India, the Supreme Court Monday posed searching queries to the Centre on mandatory registration on CoWIN for Covid jabs, vaccine procurement policy and differential pricing, saying the policy makers "must have ears on ground" to effectively deal with the "unprecedented" crisis.

Asking the Centre to "smell the coffee" and ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are available at the same price across the nation, a special bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud advised the government to be flexible with its policies to deal with the "dynamic pandemic situation".

"We are not framing the policy. There is an order of April 30 that these are the problems. You should be flexible. You cannot just say that you are the Centre and you know what is right. We have a strong arm to come down on this," said the bench which also comprised justices L N Rao and S Ravindra Bhat. Towards the end of the hearing, the bench however hailed the Centre and External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar for the efforts to deal with the pandemic saying, "The idea is not to criticize or pull down anybody. When the EAM went to the USA and entered into the dialogue, it showed the importance of the situation".

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the central government, also referred to the one-to-one talks undertaken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi with heads of various nations to effectively deal with the situation and urged the bench not to pass any order which may impede the ongoing diplomatic and political efforts to get the vaccines.

"The purpose of this hearing is dialogic. The purpose is to create dialogue so that the voices of others can be heard," the bench said, adding, "We will not say anything which will impede the welfare of the nation."

Justice Chandrachud, who himself is recovering from coronavirus infection, questioned the vaccine procurement policy and raised the issue of digital divide questioning the policy of mandatory registration on CoWIN App for jabs. "You keep on saying the situation is dynamic but policy makers must have their ears on ground. You keep on saying 'digital India, digital India' but the situation is actually different in rural areas. How will an illiterate labourer from Jharkhand get registered in Rajasthan? Tell us how you will address this digital divide," the bench asked.

"You must smell the coffee and see what is happening across the country. You must know the ground situation and change the policy accordingly. If we had to do it, we would have done it 15-20 days back," it said. Mehta replied that registration is mandatory as a person needs to be traced for a second dose and as far as rural areas are concerned, there are community centres where a person can get registered for vaccination. The bench asked the Centre to place the policy document before it on record. "If we say there is a problem, we expect you to look into it. Digital literacy in India is far from perfect. I am the Chairman of the (Supreme Court) e-Committee. I have seen the problems which afflict this. You have to be flexible and keep your ears on the ground," the bench said.