Order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh regarding shortage of oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients, Madhya Pradesh, 26/04/2021

Order of the High Court of Madhya Pradesh dated 26/04/2021. The matters related to scarcity of oxygen, shortage of beds in the hospitals and manipulation with the data of deaths and positive patients of COVID-19 in Madhya Pradesh.

An application filed by Manoj Sharma, President of the High Court Advocates Bar Association, Jabalpur informed the court about an incident, which took place at a certain place in Varanasi involving an oxygen tanker on its way to Madhya Pradesh. However, it was stopped by the police authorities of Uttar Pradesh and diverted to Jhansi. With the intervention of the state government officials, the tanker was released but delivery of the oxygen to hospitals at Sagar in the process was delayed by fifteen hours and the Madhya Pradesh government had to rush oxygen from other places to hospitals at Sagar.

The High Court said that it is responsibility of the Central Government, which is allocating the quota of oxygen to various states, to get its directives complied and ensure seamless and hindrance free supply of oxygen to the destined place involving inter-state movement.