'Get your house in order': HC raps Delhi govt for inaction, orders to take over refilling plant
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday rapped the Aam Aadmi-led Delhi government by saying that the court's conscience in it is "shaken" and that it has to "pull up its socks" with regard to distribution of liquid and gaseous oxygen to hospitals across the city.
A division bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli further lashed out at the Delhi government, stating that it "needs to get its house in order" and that it was "shocked" after several hospitals approached the court during the hearing, seeking urgent supply of oxygen for their patients.
During the proceeding, advocate Alok Aggarwal, appearing for Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, raised objection to a government order which stated that hospitals should treat emergency patients within 20 minutes and provide them oxygen support and refreshments. "We don't have medicines...nor beds, nor oxygen...we have an 18-bed emergency and we are already handling 29 beds…,"Aggarwal argued.
On this, the court said, "There is some disconnect...you are living in a different world...you are out of sync from ground reality...you don't know how a hospital is coping up and what is the inflow of medicines, doctors, paramedics...why do you pass these orders...you think you have discharged your duty by issuing this kind of an order...you are satisfying your conscience…"
"If you are unreasonable in these circumstances...you cannot fight this by sitting in your office and issuing these orders...you are only compounding the problem...please retrace your steps if you've made a mistake.
Meanwhile, pursuant to the court's last order where it stated that all stakeholders including Delhi and Central government officials in addition to oxygen refillers/vendors should hold a meeting to discuss logistics and other supply augmenting strategy, the bench noted that out of the six vendors, only one attended the meeting.
Taking a strong note of this, the court issued notices of contempt against the said refillers, observing that four of them were also not present before the court on Tuesday.
Further, senior advocate Maninder Singh, on behalf of Shanti Mukund Hospital, told the court that the oxygen allocation to the hospital is 3.2 mt whereas during the stakeholder meeting they have been allocated 2.69 mt which has not reached the hospital.
"If a patient needs oxygen of a particular level, you have to procure it...there has to be certainty...not that doctor is leaving the ICU and dealing with suppliers...we are seeing messages not being attended to…we are better without your governance"
At one point, after receiving complaints of depleting supplies of oxygen from hospitals, the court lashed out at the Delhi government, saying: "This is a constant complaint coming from everyone which means there is truth in that otherwise why would they be coming...you have augmented oxygen supply...what is happening?...SMSs are not being responded to, what is the point of creating this infrastructure?..."
On being informed about local oxygen refillers/vendors not providing the requisite supply to the hospitals, the court told senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for Delhi government, "You can take over the plant and post an officer and let him run it...pass an order and take them (vendors) into custody".
Advocate Malvika Trivedi, appearing for another hospital, told the court: "If these individual refillers are brought in line...these are the things due to which patients are facing problems, throughout India, there are no cylinders, hospitals are saying they are going with it but they are not refilling it".
"This cylinder business is a complete mess...you need to get your house in order...people are buying it in black, hospitals are not able to get it...they (vendors) will see our belligerence".
During the hearing, one Tarun Seth, an oxygen vendor, told the court that he has around 20 mt of oxygen and will get 16 mt more in the evening.
However, the court noted that Seth hasn't provided the supply to Maharaja Agrasen Hospital in Dwarka since April 22 despite supplying the same to them for the last seven years. Court noted that Seth is blackmarketing the oxygen stock and directed the Delhi government to take over his unit.
"You have completely shut your eyes to him (Seth) as if he is non-existent...we are shocked, 20 mt to one person out of 300 to 400 suppliers...after supplying tons and tons to refillers, there is no account being kept on how they are furthering supply to hospitals…" The court further directed the Delhi government to file an affidavit on how many patients have died till now due to lack of oxygen.
