SC rejects plea for India to seek compensation from China in ICJ for COVID-19

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to consider a plea for a direction to the Union government to approach the International Court of Justice to seek $600 billion from China for creating a "biological warfare weapon of COVID-19 to kill mass population" in India.

A bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde said we are not entertaining the plea.

The court, however, allowed Madurai-resident K K Ramesh to make a representation to the Union government and gave a liberty for it to him.

The petitioner pointed out that many countries and its leaders have openly expressed their view that China created biological weapon of COVID-19, which was not originated from animals. America's president also said that he did have evidence of COVID-19 pandemic being created in biological lab in China, the plea claimed.

The petition filed by advocate C R Jaya Sukin contended that the Wuhan Institute of Virology had been used for China’s illegal biological warfare weapon program.

The petition claimed, "The People's Republic of China had deliberately created biological weapon COVID-19 against India and leaked it to every public places that killed Indian people and destroyed India's economy."

It contended the COVID-19 is an extremely dangerous disease. It was designed to mutate from person to person. Many people got killed, a lot of people were admitted to hospital for treatment, and crores of people have lost their jobs due to COVID-19.

The petitioner said the International Court of Justice has been constituted for hearing the disputes between the States. Common citizens cannot file a petition over there, so the petitioner filed the plea as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL).