ORDER TO RELEASE O2 DEVICES FOR POLICE, JUDICIAL OFFICERS SET ASIDE BY DELHI COURT

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Saturday set aside an order directing the release of 12 oxygen concentrators seized by the city police for use by police officers and judicial officers.

Setting aside the May 5 order by the Metropolitan Magistrate (MM), principal district and sessions judge Narottam Kaushal said, “The MM, in his zeal to provide life saving machines to front line workers i.e. the Delhi Police and to his judicial fraternity, was so dazzled that he forgot that a judge on account of the office he occupies has to act & behave like a self-less, dispassionate saint.”

“Benevolent and well-intended, his act may be; the same cannot breach the Constitutional provisions of equality,” the judge said in his order.

Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) V K Swami, appearing for the state, argued that “the oxygen concentrators should be released to such facilities where they can be used round the clock for those who need it most”.

On May 5, MM Anuj Bahal had ordered the release of 12 oxygen concentrators seized from two accused persons.

The court noted that the MM was greatly influenced by the fact that two judicial officers had lost their lives in battle against Covid. “One of them being his own brother colleague with whom he shared the corridors. As I pen down this order, the judicial fraternity has lost one more officer, who also succumbed to Covid-19 virus,” the judge noted.

The court asked the investigating officer to move a fresh application before the district magistrate who, according to the directions of Delhi HC, would release the seized concentrators.

IN MAY 5 ORDER, A METROPOLITAN MAGISTRATE HAD ORDERED THE RELEASE OF 12 OXYGEN CONCENTRATORS SEIZED FROM TWO ACCUSED PERSONS