A Public Interest Litigation has been filed before the Supreme Court of India seeking directions restricting sale of counterfeit vaccine for COVID-19 and framing of guidelines under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The petition has been filed by Advocate Vishal Tiwari arguing that the criminal organizations may cause a threat to the public health and safety by circulating the fake and counterfeit vaccines for COVID-19.
The plea stated, “The INTERPOL organization has issued a warning that with the invention of corona vaccine there will be a danger arise of counterfeit vaccine, which several criminal organization may carry out and mostly through online mode.”
“As governments are preparing to roll out vaccines, criminal organizations are planning to infiltrate or disrupt supply chains.”
-Jürgen Stock, INTERPOL Secretary General
The plea was filed on the ground that, “It (India) can be a big place of profit for criminal organizations and companies as it can be made a market for selling counterfeit and fake corona vaccine. Such organizations adopt a very smart technique of publicity which can attract several innocent citizens of our nation for buying the vaccine. Online fraud has become regular criminal act committed and our nation is also facing this challenge.”