Release ₹14 crore to Panacea Biotec if it gets nod to produce Sputnik V: Delhi HC to Centre
Panacea Biotec will have to deposit 20 per cent of its proceeds with High Court Registry, a division bench of the Delhi high court ruled.
The Delhi high court on Friday directed the Centre to release ₹14 crore to Panacea Biotec for manufacturing Russia-made Sputnik V if it obtains permission from the authorities to produce the vaccine in India. "The release is also subject to the undertaking given by Panacea Biotec that 20 per cent of the sale proceeds will be deposited by it with High Court Registry," the division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Najmi Waziri said.
Panacea Biotec filed an application in the court for the release of its arbitral award money, which was awarded to it in 2019 in a 2010 case. The company said if it gets the money now, it can use it to manufacture the Sputnik V vaccine in India. The company has already manufactured trial batches of Sputnik V in collaboration with the Russian Direct Investment Fund, it said.
In an earlier hearing of the case, the Centre opposed the plea and said that the manufacturing of Sputnik V will not be beneficial to the country as it will supply the vaccines to the international market. The Centre also said that the company had not even got the licence to produce the Russian vaccine.
The court commented that there is untapped potential for vaccine making in the country and "some people should be charged for manslaughter if they are sitting on untapped potential”.
“There is a lot of scope and infrastructure which is available for manufacturing of vaccines. This untapped potential has to be utilised... People from abroad are coming. You have good vaccines in India. You handhold these vaccine manufacturers and take them all over India and tell them this hub is available and use this. There is an emergency,” the division bench of justices Manmohan and Najmi Waziri told the Centre.
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