HC show-cause notice to Centre on oxygen

Court says ‘you can put your head in sand like an ostrich, we will not’

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to show cause as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against it for failing to comply with its order on supply of oxygen to Delhi for treating Covid-19 patients.

“You can put your head in sand like an ostrich, we will not,” the court told the central government.

It added that the Supreme Court had already directed, and now the high court was also saying that the Centre would have to supply 700 tonnes of oxygen daily to Delhi right away, “by whatever means”.

“You are part of the city and seeing the situation yourself. No, you don't know. Are you living in ivory towers?" the court said.

A Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli also rejected the Centre’s submission that Delhi was not entitled to 700 tonnes of medical oxygen in the light of existing medical infrastructure.

It said the Supreme Court’s April 30 detailed order directed the central government to provide 700 tonnes of oxygen per day to Delhi, and not just 490 tonnes.

“We had told you contempt is the last thing in our minds but it is certainly in our minds and don’t drive us to that last point. We mean business now. Enough is enough. Be clear on this. We are not going to take no for an answer. There is no way you won’t supply 700 MT,” the court said.

“There is a Supreme Court order and now we are also saying that you will have to supply 700 MT oxygen daily to Delhi right away by whatever means. We would not hear anything except compliance,” the Bench orally observed. The Bench, which heard for nearly five hours the matter relating to the oxygen crisis and other Covid-related issues that Delhi is grappling with, said, “We see grim reality everyday of people not able to secure oxygen or ICU beds in hospitals”, which have reduced beds due to the gas shortage.

We, therefore, direct the central government to show cause why contempt be not initiated for not only noncompliance of our order of May as also of order of the Supreme Court dated April 30. To answer the said notice, we direct the presence of Piyush Goyal and Sumita Dawra (senior central government officers) tomorrow,” it said.

The Bench also said just because the Delhi government earlier demanded less oxygen, therefore the people of this city should suffer and the Centre would ignore the revised requirement and will let people die. On the submission of ASG Chetan Sharma that the compliance affidavit of April 30 order would be filed in the Supreme Court by Wednesday morning, the Bench said, “We fail to understand what good a compliance affidavit will be do when as a matter of fact 700 MT of oxygen is not delivered to Delhi. Even the earlier allocated 490 MT and revised 590 MT is not delivered even for a single day.”

Sharma submitted that the apex court had not directed supply of 700 MT of oxygen per day to Delhi. The court disagreed with him and said a plain reading of the top court's order showed that it had directed the central government to supply 700 MT of liquid medical oxygen by making good the deficit. The Bench noted that the apex court's order recorded Delhi government counsel's submission that as against the demand of 700 MT of oxygen per day, manufacturers had been able to supply only 440 MT.