New Delhi, June 2: The Supreme Court on Wednesday pulled the Centre for having paid COVID-19 vaccination system for people below 45 years. The top court termed the Central government's decision of providing free vaccination to 45 plus age group and healthcare workers, and allowing private hospitals to charge those in 18-45 group as "irrational" and "arbitrary". Supreme Court Sets Up National Task Force To Streamline Oxygen Allocation to States And Union Territories Amid COVID-19 Surge.

"Policy of Centre for conducting free vaccination for groups under first two phases and replacing it with paid vaccination by states/UTs and private hospitals for persons in 18-44 years age group, is prima facie arbitrary, irrational," reported the Times of India quoting a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, LN Rao and SR Bhat as saying.

The Supreme Court also asked the Centre to review its vaccination policy. It also directed the government to place on record a roadmap of projected availability of vaccines including COVAXIN, Covishield and Sputnik V till the end of this year. The court even asked the Centre to provide an outline how and when the government can vaccinate the remaining population.

The order was passed by the bench while hearing the suo motu case initiated by the top court regarding COVID-19 management. The court also demanded that the government should provide data about the percentage of people vaccinated with first or both doses of COVID-19 vaccines.

On May 31, the top court also questioned the Central government's vaccine procurement strategy as different states issued global tenders to purchase vaccines. The apex court slammed the Centre for mandatory registration on the CoWIN portal for people to get vaccinated without keeping in mind the real "digital India" situation.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 02, 2021 06:00 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).