SC to resume its marathon hearings on COVID-19 management from Monday

The court had also repeatedly expressed its acute dissatisfaction at the haphazard and lacklustre distribution of oxygen even as the country experienced its worst death toll.

A Special Bench of the Supreme Court is scheduled to resume its marathon hearings on COVID-19 management from Monday, following a nearly month-long hiatus after the lead judge, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud, caught the virus amidst a devastating second wave. The hearings were interrupted abruptly and immediately after the Bench, also comprising Justices L. Nageswara Rao and S. Ravindra Bhat, constituted a National Task Force to scientifically study and recommend a fool-proof mechanism for allocation of oxygen to States. The Supreme Court had constituted the 12-member Task Force to streamline and ensure the “effective and transparent” allocation of liquid medical oxygen on a “scientific, rational and equitable basis” to States and Union Territories fighting COVID-19. The apex court had expressed its dissatisfaction at the Centre’s earlier “oxygen-for-bed” formula. This “rough-and-ready” arrangement, as the court had put it, was based on calculating the allotment of oxygen based on the number of ICU/non-ICU beds. The court had also repeatedly expressed its acute dissatisfaction at the haphazard and lacklustre distribution of oxygen even as the country experienced its worst death toll. Patients were seen lined up outside hospitals waiting for emergency care as they struggled to stay alive. Hospitals had sent SOSes on social media about their rapidly depleting oxygen stocks.