"Supreme Court cannot be silent spectator": Apex court on Covid crisis

At the time when different High Courts were hearing petitions related to Covid crisis, the Supreme Court said that it did not want to prevent the High Courts from hearing the petitions but itself wanted to play a complementary role.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that during the national crisis it wanted to play a complementary role and not be a silent spectator. At the time when different High Courts were hearing petitions related to Covid crisis, the Supreme Court said that it did not want to prevent the High Courts from hearing the petitions but itself wanted to play a complementary role.

The Supreme Court said there are certain national issues that need to be dealt by the Supreme Court and at a time of national crisis, it could not be a silent spectator. The three-judge bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, LN Rao and Ravindra S Bhat said, "We are not preventing the High Courts from hearing. We are playing complementary role, if High Courts have any difficulty in dealing with issues due to territorial limitations, we will help."

Last week the Supreme Court had said six High Courts across the country were hearing Covid related petitions (regarding issues of oxygen shortage, ICU beds, medicines, vaccines) but there was confusion and diversion of resources, after which it decided to take up the issues and issued a notice to the Centre to form a "national plan."

The Supreme Court clarified its intention and said it did not intend "to take over what the High Court is monitoring. High Courts have a valuable role. They are in a better position to monitor." The court directed the Centre to provide information regarding oxygen supply and methods adopted to deal with issues of essential medicines, beds, vaccines, their price. The court will next hear the case on Friday.