SC issues notice to Centre on vaccine denial over Aadhaar

The bench had initially refused to entertain the petition saying that CoWIN does carry alternative identity proofs like driving licence and passport, among others

Supreme Court of India: File picture

Legal Correspondent   |   TT  |  New Delhi   |   02.10.21:The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the Centre and the UIDAI (Unique Identification Authority of India) on a plea alleging that Covid-19 vaccination is being denied to several citizens for non-production of Aadhaar cards.

A bench of Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and B.V. Nagarathna initially refused to entertain the petition saying that the official vaccination portal CoWIN does carry more than half a dozen alternative identity proofs like driving licence and passport, among others.

However, petitioner Siddharthshankar Sharma through advocate Mayan Kshirsagar brought to the court’s notice his own experience of being denied vaccine at the Shashwat Hospital in Kothrud, Pune, in May this year for non-production of an Aadhaar card.

The counsel for the petitioner argued that although on paper the CoWIN application says that besides Aadhaar several other ID proofs would be valid for vaccination, when it comes to actual vaccination beneficiaries are being forced to produce only Aadhaar cards.

“Such actions are a blatant violation of right to life under Article 21 read with right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution,” the petitioner said.

According to the petition, the CoWIN portal also says that the following identity proofs — Aadhaar card, passport, PAN card, driving licence, voter ID, NPR smart card and pension document with photograph — will be valid for verification and registration. It says that even according to government rules  only the photo ID, which was used for the registration, is required to be produced at the time of vaccination.

Once registered and upon booking the slot on the app, a receipt/document is generated capturing all the details of the individual and the vaccination centre with the unique code being sent to the phone number of the individual through SMS as well as the said application which can be downloaded too, the petition said.

According to the petitioner, he had submitted his passport details on the CoWIN portal, but when he went for vaccination, he was denied the jab on the ground of non-production of Aadhaar card.

“Without the Aadhaar details, the vaccination centre authorities were rendered incapacitated by the CoWIN portal to verify the registered individuals for administering vaccine upon him. In view of the same the petitioner was denied his scheduled 1st dose of vaccination.

“The police authorities were approached for appropriate action, however, to no avail. In fact one of the lady police officers further informed that even her mother-in-law was denied the vaccination for non-production of her Aadhaar details,” the petition said.