The Delhi High Court, on Saturday, witnessed a terse exchange between the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government and the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, amid the COVID-19 second wave.
A bench by Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli heard a plea by Maharaja Agrasen Hospital over shortage of oxygen for seriously ill COVID-19 patients. The bench conducted a special hearing that lasted three hours on the issue of escalating oxygen crisis in various hospitals in Delhi, as the union territory grapples with over 20,000 COVID-19 cases a day.
With the Delhi government alleging inaction on part of the Centre in supplying oxygen to the distressed union territory, where 20 patients at a private hospital died for want of oxygen on Friday, the Centre went on the defensive.
The Delhi government told the Delhi High Court it needed 480 tonnes of oxygen or the system would “collapse”. “We have seen it in the last 24 hours. Something disastrous will happen,” Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, said, adding that the city got only 297 tonnes on Friday.
However, the Centre, represented by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, accused the Delhi government of lacking cryogenic tankers to carry the oxygen it was given, arguing that Delhi was mishandling its COVID-19 response compared to other states.
In a back-and-forth exchange that was moderated by the court, the Centre said other states had been mobilising vehicles, but Delhi was not sending enough tankers. The Court observed that Delhi had no heavy industries and thereby lacked nitrogen and argan tanks.
At one point, as reported by Bar & Bench, a terse exchange took place between Mehra and Tushar Mehta. The former said refilling units were not informing them which hospital was being supplied what and how much at a point of time, adding “we don’t know the supply or demand line”.
In response, Mehta said there had to be a mechanism at the Delhi government level.
“We are putting a system in place,” said Mehra. “Start it immediately,” said Mehta. “You start your allocation immediately,” Mehra said. “This is not MY allocation. This is our allocation,” Mehta replied.
At this point, the court intervened and asked Mehta when the Centre could provide the promised 480 MT of oxygen, saying “480 is still to see the light of day. This is the only problem today...nobody is saying you are not working or being unfair...citizens can’t be allowed to die like this.”
Mehta responded saying, “I know my responsibility. I’m not saying anything. Let’s try and not be a cry baby.”
The court asked Delhi to set up its own oxygen generation plant, and asked the Centre what had happened to the 480 MT it had allocated to Delhi. In a stern warning to those who may obstruct the flow of oxygen, the court said if anyone was obstructing the oxygen supply, “we will hang them”.
The court made it clear that the efforts which Delhi government has to make in this regard cannot be trivialised and they should not leave it entirely to the Union government.
"The Delhi government should, therefore, make all-out efforts for procurement of cryogenic tankers from whatever source they can be made available, and look for all possible avenues. As aforesaid, the sub-Group in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) shall also help in this regard, and we expect the officers of both the governments to interact and co-ordinate in this regard," a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli said.
During the hearing earlier in the day, a senior central government officer submitted that the Delhi government was expecting the Centre to serve everything on platter and the state's officers will have to do some work on their own, like other states are doing.
The high court also directed all the suppliers and re-fillers of oxygen to give complete details to the AAP government about the oxygen supplied by them to various hospitals treating COVID-19 patients here, observing that there has to be "transparency" on this aspect.
It said the information to be furnished by the suppliers to the nodal officer of Delhi shall include how much oxygen was supplied to each of the hospitals and when.
"We direct all suppliers, who supply oxygen to Delhi, to provide complete details to the nodal officer about quantity of oxygen supplied to each hospital and the timing," the bench said.
The direction was passed as senior advocate Rahul Mehra and lawyer Satyakam, representing the Delhi government, contended that the suppliers were not providing them the details of oxygen supplied to Delhi hospitals.
The high court also directed the Delhi government to communicate to all the hospitals and nursing homes here the details of its new team—comprising 10 IAS and 28 DANIPS officers—constituted for monitoring the oxygen distribution in the national capital.
The court was conducting an urgent hearing on a petition filed by Maharaja Agrasen Hospital over a shortage of oxygen for treating seriously-ill COVID patients. The issue was joined by Jaipur Golden Hospital—where 20 patients died for want of oxygen access on Friday. Batra Hospital and Saroj Super Speciality Hospital, which were also running out of oxygen, also joined the hearing.
The court was informed that so far as Durgapur plant is concerned, empty cryogenic tanks have been airlifted and are in the process of being filled with liquid oxygen.
"We have also been informed that the railway is waiting in readiness to transport the said tanks to Delhi as soon as the same is loaded. So far as, Rourkela and Kalinganagar plants are concerned, we have been informed by Sumita Dawra and Piyush Goyal (senior officers of central government) that the Delhi government has not made arrangements for cryogenic tanks for transporting the liquid oxygen from these plants," the bench said.
The hearing witnessed heated arguments between Mehta and Mehra on this issue.
While Mehra told the court that it was not an industrial state and therefore, did not have access to such tankers, the solicitor general said various states are making arrangements for converting existing tankers for storage of oxygen or are procuring the same from other sources and the Delhi government too should make an endeavour in that direction.
The court questioned the Delhi government officers as to what endeavours they have made to secure tankers to get the supply of oxygen allocated to it by the Centre.
The Centre's counsel submitted that the central government would look into the issue, so that a reasonable arrangement is worked out for making tanks available for transportation of liquid oxygen from all the three plants—Durgapur, Rourkela and Kalinganagar, in coordination with the Delhi government.
The bench said in case tankers are in shortage, the Centre shall use them on rotation basis by doing rationing and that both the Central and Delhi governments should work together on this issue.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday appealed to the leaders of other states to provide oxygen to Delhi.
With inputs from PTI