The Delhi High Court on Tuesday night came down strongly on the Centre over its handling of the oxygen crisis in Delhi and across the nation. It ordered the government to immediately provide oxygen by whatever means to hospitals facing a shortage of gas in treating serious COVID-19 patients. The lack of oxygen supply has left hospitals struggling to keep tens of thousands of patients alive amid a raging pandemic.

The court was conducting an urgent hearing on a public holiday on a plea filed by Balaji Medical and Research Centre, which owns and runs various hospitals in the name of Max. The petition stated that if the supply of oxygen is not replenished on an immediate basis, the lives of critical COVID patients will be endangered.

Here are the top eight quotes by the bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli:

1. “We don’t care. Beg, borrow or steal. It is a national emergency.”

2. “Why is the Centre not waking up to the gravity of the situation? We are shocked and dismayed hospitals running out of oxygen but steel plants are running. How the government can be so oblivious of the reality”.

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3. “There is no sense of humanity left or what? This is really ridiculous and shocking. You are concerned about industries when people are dying. It an emergency you should realise. It seems human life is not important to the state.”

 4. “Every 10 days, we have doubled the number of (COVID-19) cases and the fact of the matter on the ground is that there is a shortage of oxygen and it is evident to all. It is not that it is artificial or being wrongly projected. It is there. We cannot shut our eyes to it.”  

5. “It is the responsibility of the state to arrange (oxygen). You cannot say we can arrange this much and people have to die. We cannot accept that. We cannot see people dying because oxygen is not available.”

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6. “Our concern is not just for Delhi, we want to know what the Central government is doing with regard to oxygen supply across India.”

7. “Do you want to see thousands of people dying in the country? Is running steel plants so important and urgent?”

8. “We are constrained to direct the Centre to forthwith implement this order and take over the supply of oxygen from steel plants and if necessary also from the petroleum plants, to supply it to hospitals.”