CENTRE MOVES SC AGAINST K’TAKA HC ORDER ASKING ENHANCEMENT OF OXYGEN FOR STATE

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday moved the Supreme Court against an order of the Karnataka high court order asking it to increase daily liquid medical oxygen (LMO) allocation for state from present 965 MT to 1200 MT for treating Covid-19 patients. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud was told by Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that the state is being supplied 965 MT LMO presently and the order needed to be stayed urgently. The bench, also comprising Justice M R Shah, said it will have to look at the paper book before issuing any order.

The Karnataka HC had directed the Centre to immediately increase the cap on allocation of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) to the state of Karnataka to 1200 MT per day amid the Covid-19 crisis. “We direct the Government of India to increase the cap on supply of oxygen to the state to upto 1200 MT per day from the sanctioned allocation of 965 MT,” directed the division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Aravind Kumar after analysing the situation created due to the pandemic in Karnataka.

“In these circumstances, we have no option but to issue a mandatory direction to the Government of India to again consider representation made by the state government, on April 30. We direct the state government to immediately submit a representation to the Government of India, with a projected estimate of oxygen for next one week. Representation shall be considered by the Government of India, within four days. Till representation is considered, we direct the Government of India to increase the cap on supply of oxygen to the state to upto 1200 MT per day, with immediate effect said divisional bench,” the bench observed.