The Delhi High Court on Wednesday pulled up the central government over the scarcity of oxygen in hospitals in the national capital for the treatment of COVID-19 patients, and issued unusually strong strictures on the Narendra Modi-led government and private industries and ordered the Centre to “forthwith” provide oxygen by whatever means. 

“You are not exploring all avenues to augment oxygen supply. We don’t care, Beg, borrow or steal. It is a national emergency,” the high court told the Centre. The court added that it “seems human life is not important for the state”.

The high court was hearing on a plea filed by Balaji Medical and Research Centre that runs and owns various hospitals in the name of Max. In the plea, the medical centre said that if the oxygen supply will not be replenished immediately, the lives of COVID patients, who are critical and on oxygen support, will be endangered. The petition said there are six Max hospitals in the national capital and NCR and are treating 1,400 COVID-19 patients.

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Hearing the matter on a public holiday, the court said that the government cannot say it cannot provide more oxygen and people can be left to die on roads. 

“Fact of the matter is there is an oxygen shortage. It is there for us to see. We cannot shut our eyes to it.”

The hearing, which started at 7.30 pm, went on till 10.45 pm. 

For not diverting sufficient oxygen supply from industries to hospitals, the court said, “Do you want to see thousands of people dying in the country? Is running steel plants so important and urgent?”

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“That is not acceptable. That is not an answer from a responsible sovereign state,” said a bench comprising Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli, and added, “We cannot afford to lose lives, that is the bottom line.”

How the Centre can be so “oblivious of reality,” the court said.

“There is no sense of humanity left or what?… It an emergency you should realize. It seems human life is not important for the state.”

“Why is the Centre not waking up to the gravity of the situation? We are shocked and dismayed that hospitals are running out of oxygen but steel plants are running.”

Assuring the court, Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta, representing the central government, said that the Centre will allocate 480 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and it will reach the national capital without any obstructions.

Towards the conclusion of the hearing, the court was informed that the supplies of oxygen from UP have reached the Max hospitals.