OXYGEN SHORTAGE

shu Tripathi.

Tripathi was representing Delhi resident Naresh Kumar, who demanded a commission of inquiry, to be headed by a retired Supreme Court judge, or a former chief justice of a high court, to inquire into various aspects of lack of medical facilities during the second wave of the pandemic. The plea also asked for a court-monitored investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), or a special investigation team to specifically probe the alleged lack of adequate availability of medical oxygen during the second Covid-19 wave in April-may this year.

Of the total 25,088 confirmed deaths reported in Delhi due to Covid-19 since the start of the outbreak, a total of 13,210 or nearly 53% of the total tally, lost their lives in just April and May this year, during the peak of the second wave. In contrast, during August-september 2020, the two months when the first wave was at its peak, nearly 10 times fewer people died (1,398 in the two months).

But the bench remained unequivocal that such an exercise at this point in time will only result in a blame game. “We don’t want this court to be used as an instrument to aim at someone else or to aim at some other plea. We are sceptical about entertaining such petitions under the garb of a PIL (public interest litigation). Health infrastructure has been inherited by governments in the last 100 years. It is very easy to blame those who are in positions of power today. But we can’t be acting on such assumptions,” the bench told Tripathi.

The court regretted that doctors are often assaulted in various parts of the country because there is an assumption that if a patient dies, it is the doctor’s fault. “Your petition begins with similar assumptions and therefore, we cannot entertain it,” it said.

The court remarked: “Let’s do something positive for the society like we tried to do through our orders on vaccination and on distribution of oxygen. We pass orders so that we are better equipped to deal with the contingencies in future. At this point when there are several important issues to be taken care of, we don’t want to demoralise the authorities.”

As Tripathi argued that the court should ask NTF to also look into the shortage of medical oxygen, the bench retorted that the remit of the task force is very wide, and that the objective to constitute it was for preparing the country in a better way. “We don’t think any retired judge can do anything better than what eminent doctors can do as part of the task force,” it told the lawyer.

The court dismissed the petition after recording that NTF, consisting of eminent doctors drawn from various institutions of the country, is already examining a spectrum of issues, including the supply of medical oxygen during the pandemic. About a CBI probe, the bench said the petitioner is at liberty to avail of remedies available under the Criminal Procedure Code to initiate a criminal investigation, but the court will not act just on allegations.

On May 6, the Supreme Court set up a 12-member NTF to revamp the Centre’s formula for allocating medical oxygen to states, noting that the deficiencies in the oxygen allocation formula required to be rectified by devising a new method on a “scientific, rational and equitable basis”.

The task force, which consists of 10 medical experts from across the country, was asked to devise a “public health response” mechanism, and to come up with a new formula of oxygen allocation; recommendations for augmentation of oxygen; measures necessary for ensuring the availability of essential drugs; best practices for management and treatment of Covid-19; measures to ensure adequate health care professionals; and outreach of expert medical care to rural areas.

The task force was asked to submit its recommendations to the Supreme Court and to the Centre, which has to then take appropriate decisions. The apex court may also pass suitable orders based on these recommendations.

The order was issued at a time when India was battling its worst wave of Covid-19 infections, overwhelming health care facilities across the country. The demand for medical oxygen was soaring, and several states were demanding more oxygen from the Centre, which was in charge of allocating what became the most precious medical commodity at that time.

By a separate order on June 2, a Supreme Court bench, led by justice Chandrachud, also held as “prima facie arbitrary and irrational” the Union government’s coronavirus vaccination policy that put the onus of giving doses to adults in the below-45 years age group entirely on the states and private hospitals.

Less than a week later, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a major shift in the vaccination policy, stating that the Central government will resume procuring 75% of vaccines made in the country and will give them for free to the states from June 21 to vaccinate all adults in the country.