Contract of Indemnity: Relevance in the Covid-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has shrouded silences of the conditions prevalent before its onset. First wave exposed the pandemic’s short glance, but the second wave has devastated many lives, abandoned many children, snatch people’s livelihood from them. The situation could be controlled as truly reflected in stances of intellectuals and pioneered by scientific evidence by massive vaccination. The central government of India adopted revolutionized methods to pace up the vaccine program and claimed to get every Indian adult vaccinated by 2021 end. But, does this seem possible considering the Indian vaccine manufacturers already producing on their maximum capacity. At this juncture, the possible solution is import of vaccines. But, when foreign vaccine manufacturers put forward the condition of including ‘indemnity clause’, is the government capable of compensating its citizens if these vaccines have any side-effects. In order to understand the issue at hand, a brief discussion about Indemnity in a contract is needed to be acquainted with. The article aptly deals with explaining indemnity along with case laws. The article addresses the contemporary issue of indemnity clause in contracts between the government and foreign vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna.