Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights vs Union of India & Another
Background
The Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights approached the Supreme Court seeking better access to COVID-19 vaccination for pregnant women and lactating mothers, including their classification as a high-risk category, dedicated vaccination centres, tracking/monitoring systems for side-effects, and an option on the Co-WIN portal to self-identify as pregnant or lactating. The Union Government responded with detailed affidavits explaining the steps already taken: vaccination for lactating mothers was approved in May 2021 and for pregnant women in July 2021, based on expert and WHO guidance, along with an adverse-event surveillance system already in place. During the hearing, the petitioner narrowed its concerns to three specific suggestions: mandatory declaration of pregnancy/lactation status at the time of Co-WIN registration (not just verbally at the vaccination centre), stronger targeted tracking of side-effects, and eventual publication of related safety data. An intervenor separately argued, based on his own studies, that COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe for pregnant women and sought a stop to such vaccination.
Decision Breakdown
The Court held that the three suggestions raised genuine policy questions, such as balancing a mother's privacy against the value of mandatory disclosure, that were better resolved by expert bodies within the government than decided by the judiciary. It directed that the suggestions be placed before the concerned expert groups (including the National Task Force earlier constituted by the Court) for consideration at the policy level, and disposed of the petition on that basis, trusting the Union Government's stated openness to further deliberation. On the intervenor's request to halt vaccination of pregnant women altogether, the Court declined, noting that medical/scientific safety decisions of this kind fall within the domain of expert bodies (which had already recommended the vaccination following WHO guidance) and not the courts.
Lesson Learnt
Courts will generally defer scientific and public-health policy choices, like vaccine safety protocols, to expert government bodies rather than substitute their own judgment, even while directing that citizen or child-rights groups' well-reasoned suggestions be formally considered by those experts.