New Delhi: A bench of the Delhi High Court asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of Delhi to appoint a high-powered committee to inquire into the deaths due to lack of medical oxygen in the national capital during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. The bench said this while hearing a petition filed by a woman who had lost her husband during the second wave in May this year.
In its order dated September 21, the bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Jasmeet Singh said, "We do not think that we should wait for further orders of the Supreme Court with regard to the determination of the ex-gratia amount to be paid to the Covid victims as decided by the NDMA (National Disaster Management Authority). It is necessary that, as we see, there is no overlap on the tasks assigned to the Sub-Group of NCT of Delhi and those assigned to the committee constituted by the GNCTD (Government of NCT of Delhi).”
Significantly, the woman who filed the petition had read in a news report that the GNCTD had constituted a committee of experts to inquire into the deaths of individuals during the second wave. Under this, the woman asked the Delhi government to set up a high-powered committee and demanded a direction to hand over her case to the committee and pay compensation according to its recommendations.
Also read: No deaths due to lack of oxygen reported by states/UTs during COVID-19 second wave: Centre
The Additional Solicitor General of India, appearing for the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi, had argued that the Supreme Court had constituted a sub-group headed by Delhi AIIMS Director Dr Randeep Guleria to look into the matter of allotment and supply of medical oxygen in Delhi hospitals and other related issues.
Also, NDMA was mandated by the Supreme Court to examine the aspect of giving ex-gratia compensation to the next of kin of persons who died due to Covid-19. According to an order passed regarding the matter September 13, 2021, additional time was also give for the same purpose.
At the same time, the bench was also told that the matter is likely to be listed before the Supreme Court soon. Therefore, the Additional Solicitor General urged the court to wait for the determination of the ex-gratia amount by the NDMA and sought an adjournment.
The Delhi government assured the Delhi High Court that the high-powered committee would only conduct a fact-finding exercise and that "no blame would be laid" on medical facilities. The senior counsel for the AAP government also said that the objective criteria regarding award of compensation, limited to a maximum of Rs 5 lakh in each case, would be decided by the committee, and it would be open to scrutiny.
At the same time, the Bench also observed that the work of the high-powered committee shall not overlap with the work of the sub-group constituted by the Supreme Court in respect of Delhi.
