The Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court in special hearing on May 1, declined to direct the Centre to increase the allocation of Remdesivir drug injections to Maharashtra, observing that “there is a possibility of the direction having it’s trans-border impact, and that too, without knowing anything about the larger scenario”.
The Division Bench of Justices S.B. Shukre and A.G. Gharote, was hearing a suo motu Public Interest Litigation (PIL) registered to consider issues concerning COVID-19 management in the city of Nagpur.
The Court said in its order that “The primary purpose of holding this emergency hearing today was to ensure compliance with our directions regarding supply of Remdesivir vials by way of interim relief to Nagpur city and districts of Akola and Bhandara, as per the order dated 30th April, 2021.”
Advocate T.D. Mandlekar has Advocate SP Bhandarkar (amicus curiae) submitted that the Central Government needs to give its second thought to the considerations which are presently weighing with it while making the state-wise allocation of Remdesivir vials.
According to them, one of the most important considerations that must be taken into account by the Central Government is of percentage of share of each of the States in the national figure of active case load.
“As of now, we do not have any figures of the actual production of Remdesivir vials by all the 7 manufacturing companies. Besides, if any direction as is suggested is to be passed by this Court at this
juncture, there is a possibility of the direction havingit’s trans-border impact, and that too, without knowing anything about the larger scenario.
Therefore, we are of the view that this issue can be best decided only by the Central Government and at the apex level of judicial system of India and as such we do not think it appropriate to issue any such direction.”
The Court request request the Central Government to reconsider it’s decision making state-wise allocation for the period of 10 days and increase the allocation so as to make it consistent with the education of number of active cases in the State of Maharashtra.
It was noted by the Court that “everyday the vials that are being sent to different districts of Maharashtra are almost always in short supply of the number of vials that should have been delivered to each of the districts as per district-wise allocation made by Commissioner, vide order dated 30th April, 2021.”
S.P. Bhandarkar, Amicus Curiae, submitted that actually the EOI was a global tender issued for inviting bids to supply 1,000,000 Remdesivir vials, 25,000 metric tons of oxygen and 40,000 oxygen concentrators. If this is so, it would clearly lead to two conclusions. Firstly, there is no need to mix up the Remdesivir vials which would be supplied eventually under the EOI with those that must be supplied as per orders of the Central Government.
Secondly, the EOI being about a global tender should not come in the way of the State Government in it’s effort to implement the order of this Court to centralize the whole system of procurement from Seven Indian Pharmaceutical Companies, and then the allocation, distribution and supply of Remdesivir drug within the State, which would be based upon the orders issued from time to
time by the Central Government, if any. For this purpose, there is a need for the State Government to take urgent steps in the matter, which have not been done so far.
The Bench therefore, directed the Chief Secretary, State of Maharashtra to take immediate steps in this regard and centralize the whole process and whole system of procurement from seven pharmaceutical companies of Remdesivir vials and their distribution among all districts in accordance with the orders of the Central Government.
The Court further directed the Health Secretary to issue a fresh district wise allocation order of Remdesivir vials based upon the order of the Central Government dated 1.5.2021 which should be effective for a period from 1st May, 2021 till 9th May, 2021. It was clarified by the Court that now no pharmaceutical company which is duty-bound to supply Remdesivir vials in accordance with the orders of the Central Government dated 24th April, 2021 and 1st May, 2021 to State of Maharashtra, shall supply Remdesivir vials to private purchasers in the State unless the daily quota of the supply allocated to each of the pharmaceutical companies for Maharashtra is first fulfilled by every pharmaceutical company and if there remains any balance of Remdesivir vials thereafter, then only the concerned pharmaceutical company shall supply those vials to the private purchasers in the State in fulfillment of the orders that they have received from them.
Food and Drug Administration Maharashtra was further directed to:-
(a) Upload on daily basis all the figures pertaining to production of Remdesivir drug and also other drugs received by it from all the pharmaceutical companies.
(b) Upload on it’s website the order making ten days or weekly district wise distribution ofRemdesivir vials.
(c) Upload on it’s website the number of vials actually received by it and the backlog on a given date.
“the Central Control Room should be set up jointly by the District Collector, Nagpur and the Commissioner, Nagpur Municipal Corporation by exercising their powers under Section 2 of the
Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 read with Section 65 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. The order that would be issued jointly by these authorities shall name the members of the Central Control Room, which could be officers from different department of
Government and doctors enlisted from IMA and VHA.
These members shall be divided into different teams, with each team overseeing and deciding on every aspect of Covid management in Nagpur city and District, from bed allocation in every hospital, private or Government, through distribution of all essential drugs including such as Remdesivir and Tocilizumab to distribution of oxygen and Covid essentials. The Central Control Room would be manned by these teams 24 hours X 7 days” , the order reads.
The High Court has posted the matter on 5th May, 2021 at 12:00 Noon.