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The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a PIL which sought a direction to the government authorities to forthwith include judges, judicial staffs, advocates, clerks and the members of the legal fraternity in first phase of COVID-19 vaccination.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh opined that inclusion of categories of person in the first phase of vaccination was a policy decision of the authorities and the same depends on a variety of factors.
"We see no reason to change the policy of the government with respect to COVID-19 vaccination," the Court said.
The Court nonetheless asked the government authorities to consider the petition as a representation in accordance with law and policy.
The petitioner before the Court was advocate Amarender Singh.
Singh contended that the functioning of the judicial system being one of the sovereign functions of government, members of judicial system have the right to be included in first phase of vaccination.
"The entire Rule of Law depends on functioning of courts and the litigants are suffering delays in delivery of justice in absence of normal functioning of courts," the petition said.
Senior Advocate Pradeep Rai, appearing for the petitioner, said that the petitioner had spoken to the Unique Identification Authority of India in this regard.
Respondent No. 2 (Unique Identification Authority of India) said that they have no problems, Rai told the Court.
Counsel for the Delhi government said that the decision in question was taken by the Central government and the Delhi government had no role in it.
After a brief hearing, the Court clarified that it was not going to interfere in the policy decision of the government.