A bench of Justices L Nageswara Rao and B R Gavai said bodily autonomy and integrity are protected under Article 21 of the Constitution of India. The top court said the current COVID-19 vaccine policy could not be said to be manifestly arbitrary and unreasonable.
"Till numbers are low, we suggest that relevant orders are followed, and no restriction is imposed on unvaccinated individuals on access to public areas or recall the same if already not done," the bench said. Regarding segregation of vaccine trial data, subject to privacy of individuals, all trials conducted and to be undertaken subsequently, and all data must be made available to the public without further delay, it said. The apex court also directed the Union of India to publish reports on adverse events of vaccines from the crowd and doctors on a publicly accessible system without compromising the data of individuals.
The court delivered the judgment on a plea filed by Jacob Puliyel seeking directions for disclosure of data on clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines and post-jab cases.
