Supreme Court Asks Center About Preparation To Tackle Third Wave Of Coronavirus

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The Supreme Court on Monday sought to know from the central government that if the third wave of Kovid-19 arrives, then what is its preparedness to deal with it? At the same time, the Supreme Court has asked the Center to submit a report on the action taken on the recommendations of the National Task Force on the allocation of oxygen to the states and union territories during the Kovid-19 epidemic. The court has given the government two weeks for this.

A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and MR Shah said the National Task Force held several meetings and submitted its report to the Centre. Noting that it has given enough time to the government to implement its order, the bench said, “Now we want to see where we stand if the third wave of Covid comes.” The court said the Center should complete the exercise for preparation of the ‘action report’ and submit it within two weeks.

The issue came up before the apex court during the hearing of the Centre’s plea challenging the contempt notice issued by the Delhi High Court for non-supply of 700 metric tonnes of oxygen to Delhi. The bench said it wanted information about the steps taken by the government to ensure that the recommendations were considered at the policy level. On May 5, the apex court had stayed the contempt proceedings before the High Court.

The bench said that it would be appropriate that this proceeding be listed along with the suo motu proceedings initiated on the issues related to Kovid. The court said that the report of the task force and the action taken report of the Center should be made available to all the lawyers in the case, including the amicus curiae. The National Task Force had on June 22 recommended that the country should have a stockpile of life-saving gases for two-three weeks of consumption, like petroleum products.