A public interest litigation has been filed in the Bombay high court seeking a direction to the Centre, Maharashtra government and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to provide door-to-door COVID-19 vaccination for people above the age of 75 and those who are physically challenged or bed-ridden.
The petition filed by advocates Dhruti Kapadia and Kunal Tiwari on Friday stated that such persons may not be able to visit vaccination centres or may or may find it difficult to do so.
"It is the need of the hour for the Union government to start door-to-door vaccination so that senior citizens and specially-abled (both physical and mental) citizens are able to get the vaccine without having to leave their house," the plea said.
The authorities could fix charges of around Rs 500 to provide the door-to-door vaccination facility, it stated.
The petitioners also referred to a letter written by the BMC to the state government seeking permission to take its vaccination drive door-to-door across Mumbai to increase the number of beneficiaries.
"However, this request was declined on the ground that there is no such policy for door-to-door vaccination for COVID-19," the plea said.
Senior citizens above the age of 75, who live alone, do not know how to register online and are unable to book appointments independently, the petition stated.
Another hurdle that people face at vaccination centres is of long queues and people sometimes have to wait for over four hours for their turn, the petitioners said.
A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice G S Kulkarni is likely to hear the plea next week.
