Supreme Court on Thursday gave the Centre eight weeks to finalise guidelines on the supply of medical oxygen equipment and devices as it considered a public interest litigation (PIL) highlighting the tragic death of 60 children at a Gorakhpur hospital in Uttar Pradesh allegedly due to lack of oxygen supply.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud said, “The counsel for Union of India states that the National Oxygen Guidelines and SOPs for optimal utilization of medical oxygen equipment and devices are presently under consideration of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.”
The Centre informed the Court that further eight weeks will be required to finalise the same.
Also Read: Supreme Court pulls up Centre over delay in filing affidavit on Ram Setu
The bench, also comprising justices Hima Kohli and JB Pardiwala said, “In this view of the matter, we grant time, as prayed, to place a counter affidavit before this Court after the guidelines are duly formulated placing the relevant guidelines and policy on the record.”
The Court posted the matter in the third week of January.
{{/usCountry}}The Court posted the matter in the third week of January.
{{/usCountry}}The order came on a PIL filed by one Naresh Dixit.
The petition was filed in 2017 in the aftermath of the Gorakhpur tragedy seeking a general order for putting in place a uniform policy on supplying medical oxygen at hospitals without interruption.
It also requested for an enquiry into the lapses into the Gorakhpur tragedy that occurred at Baba Raghav Das Medical College.
60 children lost their lives over a period of one week which included 23 infants.
After the incident, it was alleged that the supplier of liquid oxygen took this extreme step after issuing several warning letters to the state-run hospital to pay up his accumulated dues of ₹68 lakh.
Initially, the bench was not inclined to keep the matter pending. It felt that the matter would be best dealt with by the Allahabad high court.
Advocate Sarvesh Bisaria who argued the PIL along with advocate Prakash Chand Sharma requested the Court to take a holistic view as there was no uniform policy on supply of oxygen across government hospitals.
The bench remarked, “Can we tell Parliament to frame a law. Health is a state subject.” Bisaria pointed out that during the Covid pandemic, the Court took up a suo moto matter to arrange for oxygen supply throughout the country. Incidentally, CJI Chandrachud had headed that bench.
The bench remarked, “That was an unprecedented situation of high oxygen demand. We are in a completely different situation today.”
After learning that the matter was under consideration of the government, the bench agreed to examine the guidelines before disposing the petition.