New Delhi: The Supreme Court has asked the Centre to place before it a "comprehensive plan" — in chart form — by Thursday morning as to how it will increase supply of medical oxygen to 700 MT daily for Covid patients here even as it stayed the contempt proceedings initiated by the Delhi High Court against Central officials for non-compliance of its direction.
Putting officers in jail is not going to bring oxygen to the city, let us ensure lives are saved," said a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah on Wednesday, terming the ongoing second wave of COVID-19 pandemic as an all-India phenomenon. It also said nobody can dispute that the Central Government is not doing anything to deal with the pandemic.
The apex court conducted an urgent hearing on the Centre's plea against the High Court show-cause notice on contempt and an order seeking personal appearance of its two senior officials for failing to comply with the directions to ensure supply of 700 metric tonnes(MT) of liquid medical oxygen(LMO) to Delhi. On Tuesday, Delhi got 555 MT of the life-saving gas. The court said it will have to find ways to ensure oxygen supply to the national capital as we are answerable to people of Delhi."
We are also in Delhi. We are helpless and have been on the phone. We can imagine what citizens are going through, Justice Chandrachud said, adding that his office is hearing cries from people including lawyers seeking help.
The Delhi High Court, meanwhile, asked the Centre and the Delhi government to work together to create the oxygen buffer and streamline the distribution process, and said help of the armed forces can be sought "as there is grave urgency".
The court said it appeared that the Delhi government has not taken steps for creation of a buffer of LMO and for streamlining its distribution in the national capital.
A bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli also said it is for the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) to explore the various possibilities to create storage facilities for LMO and oxygen cylinders in the city. It said the obligation to create an oxygen buffer fell on both the Centre and GNCTD as per the Supreme Court's April 30 order.
It asked Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Chetan Sharma to seek instructions with regard to seeking aid from the armed forces for "setting up on a war footing storage tanks for LMO".
An official from the Ministry of Defence, who later joined the proceedings, said she "sees no difficulty in enabling the Delhi government" to set up the tanks. While granting the stay on contempt against the Central officials, the Supreme Court court made clear that it was not stopping the high court from monitoring COVID-19 management related issues. It directed a meeting, even virtually, between officials of the Centre and Delhi government by this evening to discuss various aspects of augmenting the oxygen supply to the national capital.