The #BombayHighCourt bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Girish Kulkarni is hearing a PIL on vaccination for homeless and mentally challenged people
Adv Sarosh Bharucha for petitioner: State has filed two short affidavits. They aren't taking care of the contentions and prayers made by us in our PIL.
J Kulkarni (after perusing the affidavit): The affidavit is extremely unsatisfactory. How can homeless people be expected to register online?
AGP Geeta Shastri: The homeless will have to come to the center and register
AGP Geeta Shastri: The homeless will have to come to the center and register
J Kulkarni: What if a person is both homeless and mentally ill. They won't give an informed consent.
Bench seeks Union's stand on the issue.
J Kulkarni: What is your national policy for them? Go and have a walk across the city or only at Marine Drive alone. You will find so many people wandering on the street. They feed on leftovers.
J Kulkarni: What is your national policy for them? Go and have a walk across the city or only at Marine Drive alone. You will find so many people wandering on the street. They feed on leftovers.
J Kulkarni: What is the mechanism to bring them under the scope for vaccination. State in it's earlier policy took care of these people but why no care of them now?
We are a very complex society. We need to take care of each and every one. #VaccinationDrive #VaccineForAll
We are a very complex society. We need to take care of each and every one. #VaccinationDrive #VaccineForAll
J Kulkarni: We want a ward wise data on how many homeless persons were taken care of during the pandemic. If you don't give the data we will say that you have failed to take care of such citizens. #VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
State: The Mental Health Act, 2017 allows vaccination of people with mental illness, who are being taken care of by relatives or caregiver.
#VaccineForAll
#VaccineForAll
Adv Bharucha: The law also allows ward officials to designate an official from social service department who can be nominated as a caregiver to these people and give consent for vaccinating them after thoroughly checking their medical state. #VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: State must keep a complete check of such people in it's policy. Even the national policy cover them. #VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: Also, consider the aspect how will you keep a check on such persons coz someone if given vaccination at Dadar might be at Borivali or some other place by the next dose schedule. How will you locate that person?
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: Someone would be in Churchgate in the morning but by evening that individual would be at Virar. How will you identify this floating population? #VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: You go to #chatrapatishivajimaharaj terminus during the evening, you will find so many people lurking there. They come here for jobs but end up on streets. How will you identify them?
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: Thus, this is a very deeper issue. U need to study the entire issue with the help of institutes like TISS. Look at the footpaths near all stations. They are full. Who are these people? No one knows of them.
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
#VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
J Kulkarni: We are seeing all this from years altogether. This is a larger issue. These people need to be vaccinated if not it would be a dangerous situation not only for them but even for others. They could even be potential spreaders. #VaccineForAll #VaccinationDrive
Bench asks both the state and union asked to reconsider their SOPs on this issue. As the present ones aren't covering the homeless and those with mental illnesses. Both the Centre and state should coordinate and formulate a new SOP
Matter adjourned for a week
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
