Delhi HC dismisses plea alleging hoarding of oxygen cylinders by AAP MLA

The Delhi High court Thursday disposed of a plea alleging that AAP MLA Imran Hussain was hoarding oxygen after the submission by the Delhi government that he was not provided the life-saving gas by the state or refillers here from the quota allocated for COVID-19 patients.

New Delhi: The Delhi High court Thursday disposed of a plea alleging that AAP MLA Imran Hussain was hoarding oxygen after the submission by the Delhi government that he was not provided the life-saving gas by the state or refillers here from the quota allocated for COVID-19 patients.

Amicus curiae and senior advocate Rajshekhar Rao also told the court that the explanation tendered by Hussain that he refilled the cylinders from a dealer in Faridabad "appears to be credible".

In view of the submissions, a bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Rekha Palli disposed of the plea alleging that Hussain was hoarding oxygen cylinders at a time when the entire city was in the midst of crisis due to the short supply of oxygen.

"We are not inclined to proceed any further in the matter," the bench said.

The submissions were made in response to the high court's query to the Delhi government on May 10 as to whether the MLA was supplied any oxygen by the state or through the refillers from the allocated quota.

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Senior advocate Rahul Mehra, appearing for the Delhi government, said that due to the instant plea the reputation of Hussain, a Cabinet minister, was adversely affected and all the good work he did is brought to naught.

Mehra said it also deters the individual from doing any such work for the benefit of the people in the future and therefore, people filing such pleas without allegedly doing proper research has to be discouraged.

He also questioned why such pleas were being filed only against one political party.

Mehra's claims and contentions were disputed by the applicant -- Vedansh Sharma -- who had filed the application alleging that Hussain was hoarding oxygen.

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The court, however, did not agree with Mehra's contention as it said it was not going to stop people from coming to court and neither was it going to put fear in their minds.

The court also said that it did not ask the MLA to stop his distribution if he was not taking oxygen from the quota allocated to Delhi.

"He stopped it on his own," the bench said.

Read: Court seeks reply from AAP MLA over 'oxygen distribution'