The Supreme Court on Wednesday asked the government to respond to advocate Prashant Bhushan's "important" argument that a person has an absolute right to refuse COVID vaccine and States cannot compel them to take the vaccine on the pain of denying them basic rights.
Appearing before a Bench of Justices L. Nageswara Rao and B.R. Gavai, Mr. Bhushan said though the Centre had made vaccination voluntary, several States had issued notification making vaccination mandatory by denying basic rights and services to people who are not inoculated against the virus. Even children were denied access to schools if they or their parents were not vaccinated. He referred to reports that children, who have very little chance of contracting the virus, are showing symptoms of myocarditis after vaccination.
