Synopsis: The petitioner also prayed for the enactment of a law to prevent any organisation or individual of selling or circulating counterfeit Coronavirus vaccines, as a criminal act.
Directions to curb the supply of fake vaccines on the Indian market should be given to the Central Government, a plea filed in the Supreme Court sought, citing a recent orange notice issued by Interpol alerting Member States about the fake COVID-19 vaccine rackets.
The petitioner, Advocate Vishal Tiwari, has sought guidance from the Centre to issue strict guidelines under the Disaster Management Act to prevent the provision of false or counterfeit COVID-19 vaccines.
The plea also asks for the establishment of a special committee to check such fake vaccine rackets and to run awareness programmes to inform the public of such fake vaccines.
The petitioner also prayed for the enactment of a law to prevent any company or organisation from selling or circulating counterfeit Coronavirus vaccines.
Interpol had recently issued a notice alerting law enforcement agencies across its 194 member countries about organized crime networks targeting COVID-19 vaccines, both physically and online.
Interpol was cited as saying that counterfeit Covid-19 vaccines, similar to the fake influenza vaccine encountered in Mexico, may pose a significant public health threat if they are ineffective at best or toxic at worst, given their production without hygiene standards in underground labs.
In his plea, Tiwari states that criminal networks through fake websites and false cures, which could pose a significant risk to their health, even their lives, will target unsuspecting members of the public.
The plea states that, physically and through online modes, such organised rackets will be carried out. There will be many websites that are involved in committing such fraud. People can be easily attracted to them as a situation of fear and uncertainty has been created by the present pandemic, so people can easily fall prey to risking their lives from the deadly virus.