Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 5: The Supreme Court on Wednesday stayed the Delhi High Court’s contempt notice against the Centre in the oxygen supply matter, saying exercising powers under contempt jurisdiction and sending to jail some government officials “will not solve the problems” faced by the national capital.
“When a country is facing a humanitarian crisis, the court must aim at problem solving,” the court said. But it refused to stop the High Court from monitoring the oxygen situation.
The Centre had approached the top court after the Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued a contempt notice against it and sought the personal appearance of its officials for non-compliance of the direction on the required supply of 700 MT of medical oxygen per day to treat the Covid-19 patients in Delhi.
A Bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud said Hauling officers up for contempt will not bring oxygen to Delhi. The Bench, also comprising Justice M R Shah said Contempt is when something is done absolutely willfully.
The Centre and state governments are doing their best amid the oxygen crisis and it is pointless to jail officials for contempt, the Supreme Court said. “We do not want contempt proceedings. We want action on the ground,” the court said.
Praising the oxygen management by the Brhanmumbai Municipal Corporation in the face of rising Corona cases, the bench suggested the Delhi Chief Secretary and Health Secretary, and Union Health Secretary to consult the BMC chiefs on how they managed oxygen supply when the active case load was up to 92,000 in the State.
The court ordered Centre to file a comprehensive plan in a tabulated chart by 10.30 am on Thursday detailing the source of supply of oxygen to National Capital region; the provisions for transport to National Capital, logistical arrangements, including distribution points for oxygen, in order to ensure complete fulfillment of oxygen requirement of 700 MT per day to Delhi.
When the Central government said Delhi can manage with 500 tonnes of the gas, the court disagreed saying its own orders were for 700 tonnes and that the 550 tonnes that the city was getting now won’t solve the problem.
The Centre told the court that both the state and Union governments were “doing their best.” It said “We are in the process of going to 700 metric tonnes of Oxygen…on May 4 we could reach 585 tonnes.” Up to 590 tonnes of the vital gas were allotted to Delhi.
The SC urged Solicitor General Tushar Mehta to comply with its April 30 order and ensure that Delhi receives 700 MT oxygen by midnight. The Centre said 351.56 metric tonnes of oxygen had reached Delhi till 12 noon today. A number of tankers are in transit, too, and oxygen supply had improved in the city since last night, it said.
The Central government tried to impress upon the court that despite being in a pandemic, India was able to augment its oxygen capacity from 5,000 metric tonnes, including industrial oxygen, to 9,000 tonnes now available for medical purpose.
Now the question was how to allocate this to each state, the government said. For this, the court was told, a formula had been adopted. “We devised a formula with experts and it is applicable for the entire country…Based on this, Delhi was allocated 480 metric tonnes,” it said.
Justice Chandrachud, however, sought to know if such a formula could be universally applicable. “Different states are peaking at different times. You cannot have a general assessment for the entire country,” he said.
The court was not sure if the “formula” was scientific or a rough one. “Of course, it is bona fide and we can look at this on May 10,” it said, adding that there was tremendous anxiety among citizens, making it pertinent that the allocation be publicised so that citizens and hospitals are aware.
Justice Chandrachud sought to look at suppliers’ capacity amid heightening demand, especially if any of them caters to multiple states.
“We had indicated creating a buffer stock. If this can be done in Mumbai, which is thickly populated, it can certainly be done in Delhi,” Justice Chandrachud said, recommending that the Chief Secretary of the Union Health Ministry speak with the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner on the matter.
The court gave the Centre and Delhi three days to discuss oxygen-supply management with the BMC.
Over 40 people have died in the national capital as hospitals there have run out of oxygen and have been flagging the shortage every few hours.
The centre’s failure to implement the Delhi High Court order on immediate supply of the full quota of oxygen to Delhi “by whatever means” had provoked the judges’ wrath yesterday. It asked the government to explain why a contempt case should not be initiated against it.
“Enough is enough. We will not take a ‘no’ regarding oxygen supply. There is no way that you will not supply 700 metric tonne oxygen immediately. We will not hear anything except compliance,” the Delhi High Court had said yesterday.
Judicial rebuke of the centre and some of the state governments by their respective high courts had continued as the pandemic kept playing havoc with the lives of the people in the wake of the country’s health infrastructure showing a near complete collapse.
Besides dozens of cases in Delhi, at least 24 Covid patients died in Chamarajnagar and five patients in a hospital in Meerut on Tuesday with the relatives of the deceased claiming that the deaths occurred due to shortage of oxygen, but both the Karnataka and the Uttar Pradesh governments maintained that “all deaths were not caused by oxygen shortage.”
In one of the harshest censor of the central government, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday had asked the centre to show cause why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for failing to comply with is order to ramp up oxygen supply to the national capital hospitals to save the precious lives.
Elsewhere, the Patna High Court said it felt ashamed because it had “failed people because of the false assurances given by the government.” An equally incensed Kerala High Court had directed the state government to inform it of the measures taken to rationalise charges of room rents, doctors and nurses charges, PPE kits and machinery like oxygen concentrators and ventilators.
An angry Delhi High Court triggered by the Central government’s pleader describing “only a rhetoric” the Delhi government’s claim of “deaths due to oxygen shortage.”
“Are you living in ivory towers? You may choose to put your head like an ostrich in the sand but we will not,” the division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said after the central government challenged an observation that the apex court has asked it to provide 700 MTs of oxygen to Delhi.
Observing that the Centre was quibbling about “little things” when people are dying in Delhi, the High Court came down hard on the centre telling it to discharge its “constitutional duty” with regards to the supply of required quantity of oxygen to the national capital for its fight against COVID-19. “Just like SC passed an order, we too passed an order. Contempt may be the last thing but it’s very much there. Enough is enough, we mean business. Please come to Para 29, it says 700 MT – very specific direction,” the court said.
The court had also pulled up the Centre for calling “rhetoric” the statement made by Delhi government that “people are dying” due to lack of sufficient oxygen supply to the hospitals in the national capital. “This is not rhetoric. It is unfortunate. We can’t be blind. This is an emotional matter when people are dying. It is a matter of people’s lives and liberty,” it said.
“There is no way that you won’t supply 700 right away. We won’t hear anything except compliance,”
According to Delhi government sources, 41 hospitals, with 7,142 people on oxygen support, sent SOS calls to the Delhi government on 3 May. According to the bulletin, the National Capital was supplied just 44 percent of its oxygen demand on 3 May while the supply against demand figure for the last seven days was 40 percent.