Editor's Pick: No one can be forced to get vaccinated: SC

On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the right of an individual against forcible vaccination and the government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy to protect communitarian health. It also found certain vaccine mandates imposed by the States and Union Territories disproportionate as they tend to deny access to basic welfare measures and freedom of movement to unvaccinated individuals. The SC bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said, “We are of the opinion that bodily integrity is protected under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and no individual can be forced to be vaccinated (against COVID-19)”. The court also stated that a person has the right under Article 21 to refuse treatment. However, it added that when the issue extended to “communitarian health”, the government was indeed “entitled to regulate issues”, but its right to regulate by imposing limits was open to judicial scrutiny. The judgement was a result of a challenge by Jacob Puliyel, a former member of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. Represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, he argued that certain vaccine mandates notified by States were violative of the rights of citizens and unconstitutional. Backing Centre’s emergency nod to Covishield and Covaxin, the court held that it was not given in haste without thorough review of the data. It also concluded that the Union government’s current vaccination policy met the requirements. It ‘suggested’ that as long as the infection rate remained low or until any new development justified the imposition of “reasonable proportionate restrictions on unvaccinated individuals”, all authorities review their restrictions for the time being. The Supreme Court’s judgement comes a month after the Bombay High Court pulled up the Maharashtra government to explain why continued restrictions on public transport usage are required even when the pandemic was not as bad as it was earlier. The HC questioned if the state could bar someone from travelling by train when railways fell under the Centre’s jurisdiction. The Centre has stated that unvaccinated persons accounted for 92 per cent of COVID-19 deaths since January this year. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more. Click here The Hindu’s Editorials GST signals: On April GST collections No short circuits: On electric vehicles catching fire The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Neon is a critical gas required for the lasers used in a chip production process known as lithography. Around 50% of the global total neon output is produced by two companies in which country? Ukraine Sweden Russia Finland To find out the answer and play the full quiz, click here [logo] Editor's Pick 03 MAY 2022 [The Hindu logo] In the Editor's Pick newsletter, The Hindu explains why a story was important enough to be carried on the front page of today's edition of our newspaper. [Arrow]( [Open in browser]( [Mail icon]( [More newsletters]( No one can be forced to get vaccinated: SC On Monday, the Supreme Court upheld the [right of an individual against forcible vaccination]( and the government’s COVID-19 vaccination policy to protect communitarian health. It also found certain vaccine mandates imposed by the States and Union Territories disproportionate as they tend to deny access to basic welfare measures and [freedom of movement to unvaccinated individuals.]( The SC bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao said, “We are of the opinion that bodily integrity is protected under Article 21 (right to life) of the Constitution and no individual can be forced to be vaccinated (against COVID-19)”. The court also stated that a person has the right under Article 21 to refuse treatment. However, it added that when the issue extended to “communitarian health”, the government was indeed “entitled to regulate issues”, but its right to regulate by imposing limits was open to judicial scrutiny. The judgement was a result of a challenge by Jacob Puliyel, a former member of National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation. Represented by advocate Prashant Bhushan, he argued that certain vaccine mandates notified by States were violative of the rights of citizens and unconstitutional. Backing Centre’s emergency nod to Covishield and Covaxin, the court held that it was not given in haste without thorough review of the data. It also concluded that the Union government’s current vaccination policy met the requirements. It ‘suggested’ that as long as the infection rate remained low or until any new development justified the imposition of “reasonable proportionate restrictions on unvaccinated individuals”, all authorities review their restrictions for the time being. The Supreme Court’s judgement comes a month after the Bombay High Court pulled up the Maharashtra government to explain why continued restrictions on public transport usage are required even when the pandemic was not as bad as it was earlier. The HC questioned if the state could bar someone from travelling by train when railways fell under the Centre’s jurisdiction. The Centre has stated that unvaccinated persons accounted for 92 per cent of COVID-19 deaths since January this year. Was this newsletter forwarded to you? Head over to our newsletter subscription page to sign up for Editor‘s Pick and more.  [Click here]( The Hindu’s Editorials [Arrow][GST signals: On April GST collections]( [Arrow][No short circuits: On electric vehicles catching fire]( The Hindu’s Daily Quiz Neon is a critical gas required for the lasers used in a chip production process known as lithography. 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