NEW DELHI: Supreme Court Thursday dismissed a PIL by a doctors’ association challenging India’s nationwide human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programme for adolescent girls to protect them against cervical cancer and said it did not behove medical practitioners to take an anti-vaccine stance.Though the NGO’s counsel clarified at the outset that the PIL was not against the vaccination programme but for putting in place mechanisms to take care of adverse reactions and compensation, a bench led by CJI Surya Kant said, “The PIL is definitely anti-vaccine.” It gave the option to the lawyer to withdraw or invite adverse comments.When the counsel continued to argue for prior informed consent of parents of the target population of adolescent girls, the bench said the PIL appeared to have been filed with an ulterior motive and lacked bona fide. It said when there was an established mechanism for taking care of adverse reactions and compensation in individual cases, it did not behove doctors to oppose vaccination when World Health Organisation had recommended it.The NGO said eminent oncologists have pointed to data that shows cervical cancer incidence has declined over the past three decades.
