New Delhi, March 11 -- The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to formulate a "no-fault" compensation scheme for deaths caused due to adverse effects of Covid-19 vaccination, observing that the state, in discharging its duty to protect public health, also has an obligation to provide an institutional remedy for adverse outcomes, no matter how rare they may be. The judgment of the apex court is significant as it paves the way for families who lost their near and dear ones due to adverse effects caused by the Covid-19 vaccine to now seek compensation once the scheme is formulated. Till now, these people were required to file a suit before a civil court or approach the consumer court, where establishing vaccines to be the cause of death was an uphill task. A bench of justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said, "Where the State undertakes an intervention of this scale in discharging of its duty to protect public health, the right to health under Article 21 would automatically extend to a corresponding obligation of institutional support in cases of grave outcomes, no matter how rare they are." The concern becomes all the more pressing in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, where immunisation was carried out on an unprecedented scale as a collective societal necessity. "In such a situation, the state cannot be heard to say that those who experience serious adverse consequences must fend for themselves, without any clear or accessible avenue of relief," the top court said. The court directed the Union health ministry to "expeditiously formulate and place in the public domain an appropriate no-fault compensation framework" to address serious adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) arising in the context of Covid-19 vaccination....