No-fault liability principle ordered by the Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court (SC) has directed the Union Government to formulate a “no-fault” liability compensation policy for those who suffered serious adverse effects or deaths following the Covid-19 vaccination drive.
- The SC invoked the principle of no-fault liability, ruling that victims or their families are entitled to financial relief without having to prove negligence or intentional wrongdoing by the manufacturers or the State.
- This principle, already existing in Indian law (e.g., motor vehicle accidents), is a standard feature of vaccine injury schemes in countries like Australia, the United Kingdom and Japan.
- The SC rejected the Centre’s argument that families should approach civil or consumer courts for damages for negligence or malfeasance against vaccine manufacturers.
- The SC said forcing citizens into “a multiplicity of individual legal battles” would lead to inconsistent outcomes and unequal access to relief, thereby undermining the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution.
- Relying on Article 21 (Right to Life, including Health), the SC asserted that the Constitution envisions the State as an “active guardian of welfare and dignity,” not a distant spectator.
- Since the mass vaccination programme was a State-led public health intervention, the State bears a positive obligation to support those who suffered grave outcomes, no matter how rare (e.g., just 0.001 per one lakh doses in India for certain blood clotting disorders).
- The petitioners argued that while the drive was officially “voluntary,” it was effectively made mandatory through administrative restrictions on unvaccinated individuals.
- While refusing to set up a separate medical board, it held that existing Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) committees are adequate, but stressed that the State’s responsibility “cannot end at surveillance alone, and must extend to providing fair compensation.”
- The SC clarified that the compensation policy does not amount to an admission of liability by the Union government.
