- (1.) HEARD Ms.Ritu Somani, learned counsel for the petitioner.
(2.) THE instant petition has been laid for initiating a public interest litigation seeking the following reliefs : - 1. All children who have developed paralytic polio disease during the National Polio Eradication Campaign can be given appropriate compensation depending upon the degree of residual handicap. 2. All children who have developed polio disease by OPV be labeled as cases of polio disease and be included in Table 2 (classification of AFP cases and key surveillance indicators (Annexure -15). 3. As cases of polio disease may occur in future also so instead of 'Polio Free Country' India should be declared as 'Wild Polio Virus Free Country'. The petitioner claims to have actively participated in the National Polio Eradication Program, besides associating himself with different expert groups, including National Certification Committee for Polio Eradication (NCCPE). It has been averred that the World Health Assembly, during its 41st Meeting held in 1988, vide its resolution No.28 required the World Health Organization (WHO) to achieve global polio eradication by the year 2000, exclusively by the use of 'Oral Polio Vaccine' (for short, hereafter referred to as 'OPV'). Contending that there exists another type of polio vaccine, nomenclatured as 'Inactivated Polio Vaccine' (for short, hereafter referred to as 'IPV'), the petitioner has pleaded that the OPV has its own drawbacks and limitations, so much so, that it does not provide protection to some children, especially in developing countries and countries with a hot climate, and that, it sometimes back mutate, become neurotoxic, and can cause polio disease. The petitioner has averred that Pulse Polio Immunization Progamme, whereunder OPV had been administered, was started in the year 1995. In 1997, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, the Academic Body of Child Specialist in India integrated itself with the government efforts for polio eradication. According to the petitioner, he had been raising the issue of poor performance of OPV and high number of Vaccine Associated Paralytic Poliomyelitis (for short, hereafter referred to as 'VAPP') cases caused due to the administration of OPV and the consequent need of infusion of IPV to curb the same. He has stated that meanwhile, he has addressed a letter dated 9.6.2000 to this effect to Dr.Shoben Sarkar, Assistant Commissioner, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi. That a copy of this letter has also been sent to Hon.General Secretary, Indian Academy of Pediatrics, Mumbai, has been stated as well. The issue of administration of IPV, as suggested by the petitioner however, did not receive affirmative response, instead, in a publication titled "Together we make Indian Polio Free" published jointly by UNICEF and Indian Academy of Pediatrics, it was inter alia recorded that public discussion of VAPP would cause serious damage to the credibility of the polio eradication strategy, and that, in the present scheme, VAPP was discarded as 'non -polio'. While admitting that such a view might be justified on the ground that the Polio Eradication Program would benefit the whole world, the petitioner has contended that an adequate compensation scheme needs to be put in place for those harmed by such program. This indeed, is the thematic foundation of the present petition, seeking the above quoted reliefs.
(3.) THE petition discloses that meanwhile, the petitioner has submitted a representation titled "Compensation for Polio Cases" dated 20.5.2013 before the Central Government, and has also forwarded a memorandum dated 5.8.2013 on the same issue to the Secretary, National Human Rights Commission, New Delhi. However, according to him, there has been no response to his representation/memorandum, as yet.;