The Central Government has approached the Supreme Court challenging an order passed by the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday directing the Centre to increase the daily liquid medical oxygen allocation for Karnataka to 1200 MT.
The Centre said they need time to supply such a large amount of oxygen. Therefore, the Supreme Court should stay this order of the High Court.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta mentioned the Special Leave Petition filed against the High Court order before a bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, who suggested that the matter be brought to the notice of Supreme Court Chief Justice N.V. Ramana.
Justice Chandrachud questioned whether they could do anything without verifying adequate documents.
The Karnataka High Court yesterday ordered the Karnataka government to increase the oxygen limit in the wake of increasing deaths of patients due to lack of oxygen. The order was delivered by a division bench of Chief Justice A.S. Oka and Justice Arvind Kumar.
“In the circumstance, we have no option but to issue a mandatory direction to the Government of India to again consider representation made by the state government on April 30. We direct the state government to immediately submit a representation to the Government of India, with a projected estimate of oxygen for next one week. Representation shall be considered by the Government of India, within four days. Till representation is considered, we direct the Government of India to increase the cap on supply of oxygen to the state to up to 1200 MT per day, with immediate effect,” the High Court ordered.
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The Government of Karnataka has been demanding 1700 MT of oxygen a day. However, the Karnataka High Court said the Centre has given only 862 MT.