The Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI), which claims to espouse the cause of Dalits, Muslims, Adivasis, backward classes and other vulnerable sections, on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court, seeking a direction to the Centre to ensure that Covid-19 vaccines are given free to every citizen as a matter of fundamental right.

The organisation, in a petition filed by its president Sharfuddin Ahmad through advocate Selvin Raja, has pleaded that only a pan-India free vaccine policy would help in combating the deadly virus as the concept of social distancing would not work in a densely populated country like India.

The petition added: “…By providing free Covid-19 vaccination, a large population, particularly the poorer sections of the society, would be vaccinated...”

The petition stated that many cities have reported a chronic shortage of hospital beds and cited disturbing reports of people dying without getting timely treatment.

It said: “Several state governments said that they are creating new facilities but experts said that it’s going to be hard to keep up with the pace of the rising number of infections. India has been consistently reporting more than 400,000 cases on a day. Nearly all ICU beds in the country are occupied. The number of daily deaths has risen sharply in the second wave.

Crematoriums and graveyards have been running day and night in several cities and people have to wait for hours to get the deceased/loved ones cremated or buried.

“Experts say that the actual number of deaths could be much higher. The Centre… owes constitutional obligation/responsibility to provide the anti-Covid vaccines for free of cost for those persons who cannot afford.

“The situations in India are graver in view of the density of the population. The maintenance of social distancing is also hardly possible in view of the demography ghetto inhabitations and traditional habits, so the prevention is better than the cure and every person in India needs uniform and compulsory vaccination, otherwise in view of the contagious nature of the pandemic, if a little population is left without vaccination on account of constraints of funds even the vaccine to majority of persons may undo and the country shall remain always vulnerable to the pandemic...”

“...It is imperative that the Union government may formulate a uniform pan-India policy for free and equitable vaccination. And the vaccination may be provided free of cost to every person...” the petition added.