-The Hindu Business Line WTO has allowed countries to issue compulsory licenses during emergencies A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday asked the Centre to respond to a plea for invoking the compulsory licensing to allow other capable vaccine manufacturers to produce Covid vaccines. The Bench comprising Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan and Justice M.R.Anitha passed the directive when a public interest litigation in this regard came up for hearing. The petition...

-The Hindu Delhi High Court pushes back, saying that the government should review its resistance at such a time The Central government should review its resistance to exempting the Goods and Services Tax (GST) levied on oxygen concentrators imported for personal use, the Delhi High Court observed on Thursday after the Finance Ministry conveyed its inability to accept the Court’s order issued on Wednesday. Late on Thursday, the Delhi High Court appointed senior...

-The Hindu The decisions regarding journalist Siddique Kappan, the second COVID-19 wave and sedition law show a rejuvenation is happening within the court. A series of decisions within a week since Justice N.V. Ramana took over as the 48th Chief Justice of India shows a rejuvenation happening within the Supreme Court in its role as the guardian of rights of ordinary people. The court has not flinched while ordering a reluctant Uttar Pradesh...

-The Indian Express The court added that meanwhile Kappan is at liberty to approach "the concerned courts for the grant of bail or to challenge the proceedings or for quashing the chargesheet”. Saying that the “most precious fundamental Right to life unconditionally embraces even an undertrial”, the Supreme Court on Wednesday directed that journalist Sidhique Kappan, arrested by the Uttar Pradesh Police and charged under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), be...

-The Hindu Over the last few decades, intellectual property rules have served as a lethal barrier to the right to access healthcare Even an unprecedented pandemic can do little, it appears, to upset the existing global regime governing monopoly rights over the production and distribution of life-saving drugs. If anything, since the onset of COVID-19, we’ve only seen a reaffirmation of intellectual property rules that have served as a lethal barrier to...