HC REJECTS PLEA ALLEGING FOOD MINISTER HUSSAIN WAS HOARDING OXYGEN STOCKS

The Delhi high court on Thursday disposed of a plea which claimed that state food and civil supplies minister Imran Hussain was hoarding oxygen, after the Delhi government submitted before the court that he was not provided the life saving gas by the state or from the quota allocated for Covid-19 patients.

Amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao told the court that the explanation tendered by Hussain that he got cylinders refilled from a dealer in Faridabad “appears to be credible”.

In view of the submissions, a bench of justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli disposed of the plea. The petitioner, Vedansh Sharma, had alleged that Hussain was hoarding oxygen cylinders at a time when the city was in the midst of a crisis due to the short supply of oxygen.

“We are not inclined to proceed any further in the matter,” the bench said.

Hussain, MLA from Ballimaran, tweeted, “I was serving the people of my constituency by distributing free oxygen. Some people did not like it and levelled baseless allegations against me. Today, the honourable court has acquitted me. I will continue to serve people like this.”

The submissions were made in response to the high court’s query to the Delhi government on May 10 as to whether the MLA was supplied oxygen by the state or through the designated refillers from the allocated quota.

Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, said due to the instant plea the reputation of Hussain, who is Delhi’s food and civil supplies minister, was adversely affected and all the good work he did was brought to nought.

Mehra said it also deters the individual from doing any such work for the benefit of the people in the future and therefore, people filing such pleas without allegedly doing proper research has to be discouraged.

He also questioned why such pleas were being filed only against one political party.

The court, however, did not agree with Mehra’s contention as it said it was not going to stop people from coming to court.

The court said it did not ask the MLA to stop distribution of oxygen, if he was not taking it from the quota allotted to Delhi.

“He stopped it on his own,” the bench said.

NEW DELHI: