Amid the oxygen crisis of Delhi and the whole country in general, the top court said today that the Centre and state governments are doing their best to control the situation and tackle it.
Responding to the Delhi High Court’s contempt notice against officials who weren’t following its orders, the Supreme Court stayed the order and said it is pointless to imprison them when they are doing all in their might.
However, the top court instructed the Centre to furnish before the bench a “comprehensive plan” showing the agendas for Delhi to receive 700 metric tonnes of oxygen. The deadline for the same is tomorrow morning.
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Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah who formed the bench hearing the matter advised the central government to look at the “Mumbai model” of solving the situation and thereby ensure Delhi gets its quota of the gas.
The High Court will continue to monitor the oxygen situation in the city as the Supreme Court refused to stop it from doing so.
The order was passed when the court was hearing the Centre’s petition against contempt cases. Concluding the matter, the SC said, “Between the Centre and State putting officers in jail or hauling them up for contempt, the people of Delhi won’t get oxygen.”
“We direct that by 10.30 am tomorrow, the Centre shall place a comprehensive plan in the form of a chart, indicating the manner in which the direction for allocation of 700 metric tonnes shall be complied with. We do not want contempt proceedings. We want action on the ground,” the court said while adding that it is answerable to the citizens of Delhi.
Upon claims of the Centre that 500 tonnes are sufficient for Delhi, the top court refused to agree as it said that it had passed orders for 700 tonnes and the current 550 tonnes oxygen being supplied to the city wasn’t enough to tackle the issue.
However, when the Centre said that the union and state governments were “doing their best”, Justice Shah agreed. This was when the former said, “We are in the process of going to 700 metric tonnes of Oxygen…on May 4 we could reach 585 tonnes,” while the latter replied, “The Centre is doing its best…Otherwise what will happen? If you get oxygen from another state, that state will also suffer.”
The central government attempted to claim that it was able to increase the oxygen capacity from 5000 metric tonnes (including industrial gas) to 9000 metric tonnes (medicinal oxygen) despite the pandemic.
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However, now remains the responsibility of dividing this gas amongst all the states, the centre said, for which it has devised a formula. “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.
It was questioned by Justice Chandrachud as he asked the universal application ability of the formula. “Different states are peaking at different times. You cannot have a general assessment for the entire country,” he said.
Though the formula cannot be finalized to be a random or a scientific one, the court said, “Of course, it is bona fide and we can look at this on May 10.” It added that the allocation process should be done publicly so that everyone is made aware of the distribution and availability. Justice Chandrachud also sought to know the capacity present with each supplier, especially those who supply to states more than one.
“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,” he said. He suggested the Chief Secretary of the Union Health Ministry to speak with the Mumbai Municipal Commissioner regarding the issue.
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The court gave a duration of 3 days for the Centre and Delhi government to discuss the plan of action for managing and supplying oxygen with the BMC of Mumbai.
Speaking about the measures it is taking, the central government said that 351.56 metric tonnes of oxygen arrived at 12 pm today in Delhi while many tankers are currently in-transit to reach soon. The volume that was received today brought much relief to the city since last night in the covid war, it added.
