Delhi High Court: The Division Bench of Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, JJ., directed the Delhi Govt. to work out the logistics of procuring the remaining quantity of oxygen which was claimed not to have been supplied out of the allocated 480 MT.
Additional Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Sumita Dawra is the in-charge of allocation of medical oxygen to various States in the country in wake of ranging Pandemic.
She gave Bench the history of how industrial Oxygen got diverted from medical use since April, 2020. She also informed the Court about the decision taken on 20-04-2021to increase in allocation for use of medical Oxygen in the NCT of Delhi from 378 MT to 480 MT.
Senior Advocate for GNCTD, Mr Rahul Mehra stated that the NCT of Delhi received somewhere between 200-250 MT of Oxygen today, adding to this he submitted that there were obstructions in the receipt of said Oxygen and the same was delayed for that reason.
Mr Tushar Mehta, Solicitor General requested that the matter be adjourned and at the same time he assured the Court that Centre shall facilitate the supply of 480 MT of Medical Oxygen to Delhi and further assured that Central Government shall also ensure unobstructed and safe passage of the Medical Oxygen tankers to Delhi of the allocated Oxygen.
Bench taking the above statement of Mr Tushar Mehta on record hoped that emergent needs of various hospitals in Delhi including those run by petitioner would be met and no casualties are suffered on account of the discontinuing supply of Oxygen to seriously ill COVID patients, and other serious patients who require Oxygen for support till the matter is take up again.
Hence, Court directed GNCTD to immediately work out the logistics of procuring the remaining quantity which was claimed not to have been supplied out of the allocated 480 MT and the suppliers are directed to comply with allocation order issued by Centre and make supplies on an emergent basis.
During this late-night hearing of the Court, it was informed to the Bench that Oxygen supplies were received by Max Hospital, Patparganj, and Max Hospital, Shalimar Bagh.
Matter to be listed today. [Balaji Medical Research Centre v. Union of India, 2021 SCC OnLine Del 1827, decided on 21-04-2021]
Advocates before the Court:
For the Petitioner: Mr Sandeep Sethi Sr, Adv, Mr Mahesh Agarwal, Adv, Mr Rishi Agrawala, Adv, Mr Karan Luthra, Adv, Mr Ankit Banati, Advs
For the Respondents: Mr. Tushar Mehta, SGI, Mr. Chetan Sharma, ASG, Ms. Monika Arora, CGSC, Mr Anil Soni, CGSC
Mr Rahul Mehra, Sr. Advocate with Mr Satyakam, ASC, GNCTD
Mr Rajiv Nayar, Sr. Advocate with Mr Ajay Bhargav, Mr Aseem Chaturvedi, Mr Saurab Seth Advocates with Mr Siddharth Jain, Whole Time Director for M/s. INOX
