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The Bombay High Court on Wednesday sought clarification from the State and Union Governments as to how dates of administration of the first dose and the second dose of Covishield vaccine to four people along with the batch number is the same.

Stressing over as to how such erroneous certificates could be generated, the Division Bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G. S. Kulkarni held,

“We require the Union as well as the State to clarify as to how such defective certificates could be generated and what would be the procedure for having the erroneous entries of administration of doses therein rectified.”

Further issuing a general direction,

“In case, in future similar such discrepancies are brought to the notice of the Union and/or the State, immediate steps should be taken to effect rectification of entries in such certificates so that the actual dates of administration of doses are reflected on the final certificates,” the Bench added.

According to the order, the final certificate for COVID-19 vaccination issued in favour of three people namely Nirmal Suri, Kavita Vikram Chopra, and Vikrambali Shambhunath Chopra, had the same date of receiving first and second dose, along with the same batch number.

Highlighting that efforts to have the date of administration of doses to be rectified have failed, Ms.Anita Castellino, advocate for the petitioner had contended that such certificates could be doubted by any person of prudent mind making the certificate holder vulnerable to be subjected to harassment.

The clarification by the Court has been asked while hearing a couple of pleas where the Bench asked the Union Government to file an affidavit indicating the entire procedure adopted for the vaccines to reach the State of Maharashtra for distribution through suppliers.

The Court further ordered the State of Maharashtra to respond by filing an appropriate affidavit to the plea raised by the counsel for the petitioners seeking a direction on the State as well as the municipal authorities to ensure that people who are not registered on CoWIN App but possess other requisite documents are not turned back from the vaccination centres.

The pair of writ petitions has been listed for further consideration on August 23, 2021.

(Case Title: Yogita R. Vanzara v. Union of India and Ors. with Siddharth Chandrashekhar v. Union of India and Ors.)