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The Supreme Court today issued notice in a Public Interest Litigation seeking direction to the Central Government to categorise Pregnant Women and Lactating mothers as belonging to the high-risk category and conducting research to keep a check on the effects of Covid19 vaccination on such women.

A bench of Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice BV Nagarathna has asked the Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to assist the Court in this regard and inform the Court about the policies and steps taken over the issue.

The PIL has been filed by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights through Advocate Prateek K Chadha further sought directions for the Government to include pregnant women and lactating mothers within the vaccination drive on a priority basis and set up a task force to work on operationalising a standard procedure and in materialising a mechanism to track and monitor Pregnant Women & Lactating Mothers post-vaccination.

Senior Advocate Vrinda Grover appearing for the Commission submitted that a separate option may be introduced on the CoWIN Portal so that the pregnant women and lactating mothers, can classify/identify themselves as PW /LM and be prioritized while providing slots for vaccination.

The petition further submits, "That the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, US has recommended that pregnant women can receive a COVID-19 vaccine. This is because getting a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy can protect them from severe illness from COVID-19. In the USA, around 90,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated and no safety concerns have been identified."

The plea has further sought direction to create a registry to register pregnant women and lactating mothers being vaccinated so that a continuous monitoring mechanism can exist to see if the vaccine has an adverse effect on pregnant women.

Grover submitted that specific research on pregnant women and lactating mothers maybe done so that we know that what are the effects of vaccination on such women.

The bench has issued notice keeping the plea returnable within 2 weeks.

Case Title: Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights Vs Union of India & Anr