Highlights:
- SC rules deaths occurred after Covid jabs & States cannot shrug off responsibility. However, judgment falls short of fixing accountability due to a “no fault clause.”
- HPV Vaccine given to 5 girls in a remote village in MP under false pretense and without parental consent.
- AI tools deployed in Government Hospitals in Andhra Pradesh.
- Underbelly of glamour in health innovations like AI: hundreds affected by water contamination in three states, including Andhra Pradesh.
- गड्ढ़ाबचाके, खंभाबचाके(Mind the potholes, mind the poles), the state of Indian Roads which kill 400-500 people every day due to road traffic accidents.
Website: https://uho.org.in
Download: https://uho.org.in/nl/2026-03-13-newsletter.pdf (copy and paste the link)
By Dr. Amitav Banerjee, Chairperson of the Universal Health Organisation (UHO)
The weekly newsletters are a source of crucial updates regarding the state of public health, especially in light of the challenges faced during the COVID-19 pandemic. They reflect a commitment to the principles of Transparency, Empowerment, and Accountability championed by the UHO.
SC rules deaths occurred after Covid jabs & States cannot shrug off responsibility. However, judgment falls short of fixing accountability due to a “no fault clause.”
The Supreme Court held that when a vaccination programme is undertaken as a State-led public health intervention, the government cannot evade responsibility towards families who allege deaths or serious injuries following vaccination, particularly when official data itself acknowledges that some deaths occurred after COVID-19 vaccination. the Court said that Article 21 imposes a positive obligation on the State to ensure that affected families are not left without any accessible mechanism for redress.
A bench of Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sandeep Mehta accordingly directed the Union Government to formulate a no-fault compensation policy for serious adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination.
The directions were issued in a batch of petitions led by Rachana Gangu v Union of India, filed by families alleging deaths or severe medical conditions following COVID-19 vaccination. The Court clarified that it was not examining the efficacy of the vaccines or reviewing the regulatory approval process. Instead, the constitutional question before it was whether the absence of a structured redress mechanism for persons allegedly harmed during a State-driven vaccination programme warranted institutional intervention.
Highlighting the nature of the vaccination drive as a State-led initiative undertaken during an unprecedented public health crisis, the Court said that the State could not distance itself from the consequences of adverse events.
“The vaccination program undertaken during the pandemic was itself an expression of these constitutional commitments. The State went above and beyond in order to create a vaccination scheme and the same undoubtedly helped save many lives. But at the same time, as the government data itself suggests, it cannot be brushed aside that the same vaccines also led to loss of life. In such a situation, it is not appropriate that the State shrugs its responsibility in coming to aid to those affected families who have lost their near and dear ones.”
The proceedings arose from a writ petition filed by parents of two young women who died after receiving COVID-19 vaccines. The petition sought constitution of an independent medical board to examine such deaths, formulation of protocols for identifying adverse events following immunisation (AEFI), and compensation for affected families.
The petitioners alleged structural deficiencies in India’s vaccine governance regime, contending that the Union Government failed to ensure transparency, informed consent and effective post-vaccination surveillance. They argued that although vaccination was formally voluntary, administrative restrictions on travel and access to public spaces effectively compelled citizens to take vaccines. The petitioners also pointed to international scientific studies linking AstraZeneca’s vaccine platform, of which Covishield is a version, with rare blood clotting disorders, alleging that the government did not adequately disclose such risks or publish causality assessments of adverse events.
They further contended that families of individuals who died following vaccination were left without any effective remedy and urged the Court to direct the formulation of a compensation framework.
The Union Government argued that COVID-19 vaccines were approved after rigorous regulatory scrutiny by statutory bodies such as the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation and expert committees. It also submitted that India already has a well-established AEFI surveillance system involving district, state and national committees that monitor and investigate adverse events. According to the government, the incidence of vaccine-related complications such as thrombotic thrombocytopenia syndrome in India was extremely rare. It also contended that affected individuals could pursue civil or consumer remedies in cases involving negligence or liability.
The Supreme Court observed that although courts cannot undertake a scientific determination of causality in vaccine injury cases within writ jurisdiction, that limitation does not exhaust the Court’s constitutional inquiry. Emphasising that the Constitution does not view the State as a distant spectator to human suffering, the Court held that when the government undertakes a large-scale public health intervention such as a vaccination programme, it cannot shrug off responsibility if grave adverse outcomes occur. Noting that government data itself indicates that some deaths followed vaccination, the Court said affected families cannot be left to pursue onerous negligence-based litigation as the sole remedy.
The bench noted that remedies based solely on negligence, such as civil suits or consumer complaints, may be ill-suited in the context of mass immunisation programmes where scientific attribution of harm is often complex. Requiring affected families to prove fault in each case would impose an onerous burden and could lead to inconsistent outcomes, the Court said.
The Court referred to similar compensation mechanisms adopted in several countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan, where no-fault vaccine injury compensation programmes provide financial assistance to individuals suffering adverse effects following vaccination. Such mechanisms enable swift relief without requiring lengthy litigation over fault or negligence, the Court noted. “In such a situation, the State cannot be heard to say that those who experience serious adverse consequences must fend for themselves, without any clear or accessible avenue of relief,” the Court observed.
The UHO while expressing satisfaction on this development enabling some of the victim to receive some compensation from the State, it has many reservations on the judgment. The Court while adopting the precedence from other countries overlooks that the “no fault compensation” clause protects the vaccine manufacturers who will continue to manufacture defective and untested vaccines with impunity.
It will also lead to limited transparency and access to data to lawyers and independent researchers. Petitioners will be pitted against the State with their lawyers instead of individual manufacturers. Apart from this, while the profit from the vaccine is earned by the Pharma, the compensation will be paid from public money.
Instead before taking up any mass vaccination, a public hearing, listing of all possible side effects, informing and widely publicizing side-effects and easy ways to register and get redressal should be the directive. With a tragedy in the family, poor people have no means to do this. Actually, health workers should follow the vaccinated people. Even such a move was to be taken at some time if I remember correctly. Medical fraternity should be strictly warned if they brush aside the adverse effects.
Especially when they have started mass HPV vaccination with pressure on health workers.
Original guidelines mentioned that there cannot be any fixed time till the adverse events can be reported.
HPV Vaccine given to 5 girls in a remote village in MP under false pretense and without parental consent.
Five girls in Gwalior fell ill after receiving the HPV vaccine in Barkari Jigniya village. They reported vomiting, dizziness and fever and were admitted to Dabra Civil Hospital. Doctors said they are now stable. Families alleged they were not informed before vaccination.
According to family members, the girls were taken for vaccination by an anganwadi worker without clearly informing their parents.
The families alleged that the girls were told they would receive ₹50k and assistance for their marriage and were asked to sign a form before the vaccination.
After returning home, the girls informed their families about the vaccine. Soon after, they complained of vomiting, dizziness and fever, which worried their parents.
The families then took them to the Civil Hospital in Dabra, where they were admitted for treatment.
The girls – identified as Anjali, Poonam, Rajni, Bharti and Rekha from Barkari Jigniya village – were given primary medical care at the hospital. Doctors later said that all five girls are now stable and out of danger.
Family members alleged that they were not informed in advance about the vaccination and that their consent was not taken.
They claimed that health workers may have administered the vaccine to meet their vaccination targets.
UHO strongly condemns this exploitation of poor people in a remote village and worries that this may become the norm for health workers to meet their targets. Serious note should also be taken to false promise of money for marriage to the girls. One can well imagine how adverse effects, if any, will be monitored and managed in such remote villages of our vast country.
AI tools deployed in Government Hospitals in Andhra Pradesh.
While basic health facilities, equipments, and medical and nursing staff are not adequate in government hospitals in India, the glitz and glamour of AI tools is being hyped as a magic wand.
Several district hospitals in Andhra Pradesh will adopt artificial intelligence (AI) to enable faster diagnosis and improve the quality of treatment. As a part of a pilot project, innovative healthcare technologies developed by startups are being implemented in 18 government hospitals across the state.
UHO would recommend provision of basic health services and fully staffed and equipped government hospitals before going rapidly for new and untested technologies at high cost. Giving a free run to AI without experienced doctors to interpret the outputs would lead to many false positive tests creating false alarms raising the cost of medical treatment by way of further investigations and sometimes unnecessary interventions. This would also raise the anxiety levels of patients who receive a false diagnosis.
In such hasty promotions of new technologies various conflicts of interests should also be considered.
Underbelly of glamour in health innovations like AI: hundreds affected by water contamination in three states, including Andhra Pradesh.
While on one hand there is hype of innovations like AI in health care, people continue to suffer from lack of basic sanitation and safe water.
Incidents of drinking water contamination is being reported from Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh with hundreds of people falling sick, the Rajya Sabha was informd on Monday.
UHO wants to emphasize once again the basic sanitation and safe water supplies would prevent more diseases and reduce costly hospital treatment and loss of wages for the poor. These basic health needs should receive attention before going for “innovative and untested technologies” like AI.
गड्ढ़ाबचाके, खंभाबचाके (Mind the potholes, mind the poles), the state of Indian Roads which kill 400-500 people every day due to road traffic accidents.
An old fictional anecdote goes like this. A woman dies and is being taken to the cremation ground. The pall bearers carrying the body lose balance on encountering a “gadda” (pothole), and the casket carrying the body falls to the ground. The jolt shakes up the body and the woman who was presumed to be dead, gets up and comes out of the casket to the great surprise of the funeral procession. The procession is called off and the woman goes back home alive. After a year the woman again dies (i.e. if one can die twice!). This time the husband leads the funeral procession shouting, गड्ढ़ाबचाके, खंभाबचाके (mind the potholes, mind the poles)!
Facts seem to be catching up with fiction in India. A pothole in the on the Bareilly-Haridwar
National Highway (NH) 74, turned out to be a blessing for a 50 year old woman from Uttar Pradesh, reviving her after there was no sign of life and she was pronounced “brain dead” at a hospital in Bareilly.
She was being brought back for the funeral in an ambulance when the vehicle jumped over a pothole ridden stretch on the highway and the sudden jolt brought about the miracle. The husband reported that his wife started breathing again and he diverted the ambulance to a nearby hospital where she recovered under the care of the neurosurgeon.
While this particular incident proved miraculous for the woman who was pronounced “brain dead,” the incident raises a couple of concerning issues.
Firstly, we lose around 400-500 people in road traffic accidents daily due to poor roads. Secondly, though in rarest of rare cases, a doctor may pronounce someone dead wrongly, this case was declared dead in a well equipped Bareilly hospital. This aspect should be properly investigated.
This incident again points to our neglect of basic health care and an unholy haste to implement new untested technologies at high cost.
The weekly newsletters bring the updates on the science, battered and bruised during the pandemic, legal updates and impact of activism for a just society, across the world. These are small steps to promote Transparency, Empowerment and Accountability – the ethos of the UHO.
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