Supreme Court Directs Govt to Compensate for COVID Vaccine Harms; Demands Error-Free Policy

The Supreme Court, while delivering its verdict on petitions related to COVID vaccination on Tuesday, directed the government to establish a no-fault compensation policy to compensate for the side effects of vaccination.

A no-fault compensation policy means that if a person suffers harm from a medicine or vaccine, they can receive compensation, even if no one is proven to be at fault.

The bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta also stated that the existing system for monitoring side effects of vaccination will continue. There is no need to establish a separate expert panel for this.

The Supreme Court delivered this verdict on a petition filed in 2021 by Rachna Gangu and Venugopalan Govindan, alleging that their daughters died due to side effects of the COVID vaccine.

3 key points of the Supreme Court order…

Data related to vaccine side effects will be made public from time to time.

This decision does not mean that individuals cannot pursue other legal remedies. A compensation policy will not mean that the government or any other authority has admitted its mistake.

The decision was reserved in November 2025.

On November 13th of last year, these petitions were debated at length. Following this, Justice Vikram Nath stated that the court would decide on other issues as well. While reserving the order, Justice Nath stated, "We will decide whether to form a committee and what instructions should be issued. We will examine everything thoroughly."

Previously, the government had filed a petition challenging the Kerala High Court's interim order, which ordered the formulation of a compensation policy in response to Saida K.A.'s petition.

In 2022, the government argued in its counter-affidavit that it was not liable for compensation because the vaccine was administered voluntarily. It was a decision made despite the public's knowledge of the risks involved.