Supply oxygen or face contempt action: Delhi High Court directs Centre

The Delhi Court took note of eight deaths at Batra Hospital reportedly due to lack of oxygen supply in the city.

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Saturday (May 1, 2021) directed the Centre to supply 490 metric tonnes of allocated oxygen to the national capital during the day or face contempt action. The bench said the Centre has made an allocation of 490 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi and 'you fulfill it'.

"Much water has gone above head. Now, we mean business. Enough is enough," a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli asserted, as per a report by PTI.

The Centre's request to defer the order till Monday or for half-an-hour was also declined.

"Do you mean we will shut our eyes to people dying in Delhi," the bench asked when the Centre's counsel said the oxygen crisis is before the Supreme Court also which will make its order public on Saturday.

Further, the court took note of eight deaths at Batra Hospital due to lack of oxygen supply in the city.

As many as eight COVID-19 patients including a doctor died at Delhi's Batra Hospital due to oxygen shortage on Saturday, revealling just how grim the coronavirus situation is in the national capital.

"We are trying to revive five other critical patients," PTI news agency quoted Dr SCL Gupta as saying.

Among those who died, one is a doctor of the Batra Hospital's Gastro Department Dr RK Himthani.