Use NSA against those hoarding COVID essentials: plea

Many died due to lack of access to life-saving materials, says petition in Supreme Court .

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court to invoke the National Security Act in cases of hoarding, profiteering, adulteration and blackmarketing of essentials, including COVID drugs and equipment. The plea by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay said legal action against perpetrators should include seizure of their benami properties and disproportionate assets. The petition said the prison sentences for the various offences should run consecutively and not concurrently as is usual the practice mandated under Section 31 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.