NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to consider a plea seeking prioritisation in giving COVID-19 vaccination to Judges, lawyers and judicial staff across the country.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde said, "We will consider this matter after two weeks."
The PIL seeks directions that members of the judiciary and judges should be on the priority list for the COVID19 vaccine. The PIL claims that like health workers, police and armed forces, the lawyers and judges were also in the frontline during COVID.
The petition filed by one Arvind Singh submitted that "police, security forces, revenue officials- all these people have been given priority but all these people, whatever they do, culminates into the judicial system. Lawyers, judicial staff, judges are not included in the priority list for the vaccine".
Giving details of the vaccination drive, the Joint Secretary of Union Health Ministry Mandeep Bhandari on Monday had said that more than 85 lakh people have been vaccinated in the country against COVID-19.
"Total vaccination carried out is of 85,16,385 beneficiaries. Out of these, 61,54,894 healthcare workers have been vaccinated. Of these, the first dose of vaccine has been given to 60,57,162 while the second dose has been given to 97,732 beneficiaries," said Bhandari.
"Vaccination has been given to 23,61,491 frontline workers till 6 pm today (Monday)," he added.
Union Health Ministry has approved two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, under Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU).