IN RE: DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES AND SERVICES DURING PANDEMIC versus .

Citation: [2021] 4 S.C.R. 297 · Decided: 30-04-2021 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: D.Y. CHANDRACHUD, L. NAGESWARA RAO, S. RAVINDRA BHAT · Disposal: Directions issued

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Judgment (excerpt)

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   [2021] 4 S.C.R. 297
297
IN RE: DISTRIBUTION OF ESSENTIAL SUPPLIES AND
SERVICES DURING PANDEMIC
(Suo Motu Writ Petition (Civil) No. 03 of 2021)
APRIL 30, 2021
[DR. DHANANJAYA Y CHANDRACHUD,
L. NAGESWARA RAO AND S. RAVINDRA BHAT, JJ.]
COVID-19 Pandemic: Suo Motu cognizance of various issues
relating to COVID-19 – Unprecedented humanitarian crisis following
outbreak of COVID-19 pandamic – Issues as regards distribution
of essential supplies and services during pandemic – Issuance of
directions, recommendations and questions to the Government as
regards the medical infrastructure, national policy for admission to
hospitals, oxygen allocation and availability, vaccines capacity and
disbursal and vaccine pricing, potentiality of compulsory licensing
for vaccines and essential drugs, supply of essential drugs, black
marketing and augmentation of health care workforce – Direction
to Union of India to ensure that the deficit in the supply of oxygen
to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi- GNCTD
is rectified within the stipulated period – Direction to Central
Government who would in collaboration with the States, prepare a
buffer stock of oxygen for emergency purposes and decentralize
its location – Direction to Central Government and State
Governments that it would notify all Chief Secretaries/Police that
any clampdown on information on social media or harassment caused
to individuals seeking/delivering help on any platform would attract
a coercive exercise of jurisdiction – Central Government to
formulate a national policy on admissions to hospitals which would
be followed by all State Governments, and till then no patient to be
denied hospitalization or essential drugs in any State/UT for lack
of local residential proof of that State/UT – Issuance of direction to
Central Government to revisit its initiatives and protocols, including
on the availability of oxygen, availability and pricing of vaccines,
availability of essential drugs at affordable prices and on all the
other issues – Judicial notice – Constitution of India.
Constitution of India: Art. 32 - Suo Motu writ petition –
Unprecedented humanitarian crisis following outbreak of COVID-
19 pandamic – Dialogical role of the bench – Held: Jurisdiction
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2021] 4 S.C.R.
assumed by this Court under Art. 32 did not automatically lead to
the erosion of High Court’s jurisdiction under Article 226 -
Jurisdiction under Article 226 is important – High Courts may be
better equipped to deal with issues within their own States – However,
this Court assumed jurisdiction over issues in relation to COVID-
19 which traverse beyond state boundaries and affect the nation in
its entirety – Jurisdiction exercised is merely to facilitate a dialogue
of relevant stakeholders, the UOI, the States and this Court, in light
of the pressing humanitarian crisis, and not with a view to usurp
the role of the executive and the legislature – This bounded-
deliberative approach is exercised so that the UOI and States can
justify the rationale behind their policy approach which must be
bound by the human rights framework u/Arts. 21 and 14.
Suo Motu vs State of Gujarat Writ Petition (PIL) No 53
Of 2021; K.S. Puttaswamy (Privacy-9J.) vs Union of
India (2017) 10 SCC 1: [2017] 10 SCR 569 – referred
to.
Sandra Fredman, “Adjudication as Accountability: A
Deliberative Approach” in Nicholas Bamforth and Peter
Leyland (eds), Accountability in the Contemporary
Constitution (Oxford University Press, 2013) ; Theodore
O. Prosise, ‘The collective memory of the atomic
bombings misrecognized as objective history: The case
of the public opposition to the national air and space
museum’s atom bomb exhibit’ - (1998) 62 Western
Journal of Communication 3:316-347, pg 318 ; Bryan
Hubbard and Marouf A. Hasian, ‘Atomic Memories of
the “Enola Gay” : Strategies of Remembrance at the
National Air and Space Museum’ (1998) 1 Rhetoric and
Public Affairs 3:363-385, pg 364; Austin Sarat and
Thomas R. Kearns, History, Memory, and the Law
(University of Michigan Press, 2009) pgs 12-13; Nicole
Maurantonio, “The Politics of Memory” in Kate Kenski
and Kathleen Hall Jamieson (eds), The Oxford
Handbook of Political Communication (Oxford
University Press, 2014); Elena N. Naumova, ‘The traps
of calling the public health response to COVID- 19 “an
unexpected war against an invisible enemy” (2020)
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Journal of Public Health Policy (2020) 41:233-237,
pg 

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