{"id":122373,"date":"2021-07-30T20:00:05","date_gmt":"2021-07-30T14:30:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=122373"},"modified":"2021-07-30T20:00:05","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T14:30:05","slug":"in-the-interest-of-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/in-the-interest-of-the-public\/","title":{"rendered":"In the interest of the public"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=G3F8QNOSU.1&amp;imageview=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Hindu\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Synopsis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Compulsory vaccination is legal and does not violate anyone\u2019s fundamental rights.<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b>Background<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>Registrar General v. State of Meghalaya<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Meghalaya High Court ruled that compulsory vaccination can\u2019t be coerced by the state government.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The government had ordered shopkeepers, local taxi drivers, and others to get the COVID-19 vaccines before they resume economic activities.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In response to the court\u2019s order, the State government released a new order stating that the requirement of vaccination was merely a direction and not mandatory.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The case raises important questions of how the government can overcome widespread vaccine hesitancy and bring the pandemic to an end.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Why did the Meghalaya High Court revoke compulsory vaccination<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">?<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It ruled that the government\u2019s order intrudes upon<\/span><b> one\u2019s right to privacy and personal liberty,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as it deprives the individual of their bodily autonomy and bodily integrity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It found that the government\u2019s order is <\/span><b>not maintainable in law as there is no legal mandate for mandatory vaccination<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It relied on the Central government\u2019s frequently asked questions, which specify that COVID-19 vaccination is voluntary.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The court concluded that the State, rather than adopting coercive steps, must persuade the people to get themselves inoculated.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Compulsory Vaccination<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It has often been deployed in India and abroad. The <\/span><b>Vaccination Act, 1880<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, allowed the government to <\/span><b>mandate smallpox vaccination<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> among children in select areas.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Similarly, several State laws, which set up municipal corporations and councils, empower local authorities to enforce compulsory vaccination schemes.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Contrary to the High Court\u2019s opinion, <\/span><b>compulsory vaccination has passed the muster of judicial review in several national and international courts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> abroad.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In <\/span><b>Vav\u0159i\u010dka and Others v. Czech Republic<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) said that the compulsory COVID-19 vaccination scheme is<\/span><b> consistent with the right to privacy and religion<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The ECtHR cites case laws in France, Hungary, Italy, the U.K., among others to show that <\/span><b>several constitutional courts have validated compulsory vaccination<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and ruled that it has an overriding public interest.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Can India go for compulsory vaccination?<\/b><\/h5>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to the order in Justice <\/span><b>Puttaswamy v. Union of India<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a restriction on privacy can be justified if it passes <\/span><b>a three-prong test<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>First<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the restriction <\/span><b>must be provided in the law<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. State governments have the authority to mandate vaccines under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897. It allows them to prescribe regulations to prevent the spread of an epidemic disease.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Second<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><b>restriction must have a legitimate aim<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Compulsory vaccination pursues the legitimate aim of protecting the public from COVID-19.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><b>Third<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the restriction <\/span><b>must be proportional to the object pursued<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. With more than four lakh reported deaths and a looming third wave, the current scenario counts as a pressing social need.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><b>Suggestions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">:<\/span><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Violations of rights from <\/span><b>mandatory administration of a vaccine cannot be termed so grave as to override the health rationale<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> underlying the government\u2019s order.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nevertheless, the government could provide appropriate accommodation for persons based on genuine medical reasons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: The Hindu\u00a0 Synopsis: Compulsory vaccination is legal and does not violate anyone\u2019s fundamental rights. Background: In Registrar General v. State of Meghalaya, the Meghalaya High Court ruled that compulsory vaccination can\u2019t be coerced by the state government.\u00a0The government had ordered shopkeepers, local taxi drivers, and others to get the COVID-19 vaccines before they resume&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/in-the-interest-of-the-public\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">In the interest of the public<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10322,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212],"class_list":["post-122373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1700534429},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10322"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=122373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/122373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=122373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=122373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=122373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}