Supreme Court dismisses plea against HPV vaccination; no informed consent, says petitioner

At the outset, Advocate Shivan Raghuwanshi, appearing for UHO, told the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, that the plea was not against the vaccination programme.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a PIL which claimed that the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) affects fertility and sought safeguards in the rollout of the nationwide programme to vaccinate adolescent girls.

A three-judge bench presided over by CJI Surya Kant was critical of the plea by Universal Health Organisation (UHO) — a Delhi-based forum of doctors and academics — which alleged that the exercise was being carried out “without adequate informed parental consent”, but finally allowed it to withdraw the petition.

At the outset, Advocate Shivan Raghuwanshi, appearing for UHO, told the bench, also comprising Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohana, that the plea was not against the vaccination programme.  “I am not at all anti-vaccine. My first contention is the way it is being implemented. Second, there is no adverse event mechanism. Whenever there is an adverse event, it must be monitored. There should also be a compensation scheme,” he submitted.

Justice Bagchi said the “World Health Organisation (WHO), as part of its social medicine endeavour, prescribes HPV vaccine … After that I don’t know if the doctors should come up with the petition”.

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Ananthakrishnan G. is a Senior Assistant Editor with The Indian Express. He has been in the field for over 26 years, kicking off his journalism career as a freelancer in the late nineties with bylines in The Hindu. A graduate in law, he practised in the District judiciary in Kerala for about two years before switching to journalism. His first permanent assignment was with The Press Trust of India in Delhi where he was assigned to cover the lower courts and various commissions of inquiry. He reported from the Delhi High Court and the Supreme Court of India during his first stint with The Indian Express in 2005-2006. Currently, in his second stint with the daily newspaper, he reports from the Supreme Court and writes on topics related to law and the administration of justice. Legal reporting is his forte though he has extensive experience in political and community reporting too, having spent a decade as Kerala state correspondent, The Times of India and The Telegraph. He is a stickler for facts and has several impactful stories to his credit. ... Read More