Plea to stop mass COVID-19 vaccination dismissed

Team Udayavani, May 27, 2021, 9:25 AM IST

Bengaluru: A PIL filed by an ex-serviceman and two others seeking directives to stop mass vaccination of Covishield and Covaxin was dismissed by the Karnataka High Court.

The court after dismissing the plea imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the petitioners for wasting precious time of the court.

A special division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar directed NS Sriram and Niswarth Kochar, petitioner 2 and 3, respectively, to pay the cost within a month, while exempting Mathew Thomas (82), petitioner 1, from paying the cost as he is an ex-serviceman.

The court said, “We decline to entertain the petition only on the ground that it was not filed in public interest. It is a fit case to impose exemplary costs as it is consumed 45 minutes, which could have been devoted to deal with important issues arising out of Covid-19.”