SC intervention in Covid-19 management uncalled for, says Congress

Congress said that the apex court was ill-equipped to deal with local issues

The Congress on Friday hit out at the Supreme Court's intervention in the Modi government’s Covid-19 management by saying it was “totally uncalled for”.

“Unfortunately, it is wrong, wrong and wrong,” Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi told reporters in a virtual press conference, adding that the apex court was ill-equipped to deal with local issues.

“It is wrong because the SC has not done, and perhaps because of its apex nature, could not have done what diverse High Courts have done, especially what the Delhi HC did at 9 pm to give some relief to the oxygen-starved common man of Delhi,” Singhvi said.

Singhvi also objected to the appointment of senior counsel Harish Salve as the amicus curiae for the suo motu case related to the distribution of essential supplies and services, including oxygen and drugs, during the Covid-19 pandemic. He contended that Salve was a “non-resident Indian” and has appeared on behalf of a company seeking to re-open its plant shut down on orders of the Supreme Court for green violations.

Read: Case on Covid-19 management: SC allows Harsh Salve to be recused as amicus curiae

On Thursday, the Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognisance of the Covid-19 situation in the country and sought a national plan from the Centre on issues ranging from supply of oxygen and essential medicines required to treat Covid-19.

Singhvi said it is wrong because the SC should not have "virtually paralysed" the ongoing action in the country giving a healing touch to local problems at the local level at the 11th hour, with one day's notice, and on the very last day of the incumbent CJI's term of office.

“It is wrong because it is not suo motu ameliorative but a reaction to palliative High Court orders. It is wrong because decentralisation not over centralisation – judicial, administrative and societal – is the need of the hour,” Singhvi said.

Read: India's Covid-19 crisis: What is to blame?

He said the High Courts were efficiently upholding the citizens' right to life and holding the government accountable in a more nuanced way – on a case-to-case basis.

“Then what is the need to prevent them from discharging their duties,” the Congress spokesman said.

Singhvi said the interference may have the “unintended effect of legitimation of the utter failure of the central government on all fronts in its anti-Covid policies and actions".

“It, in fact, enhances the closed and incestuous circle of the Central government or connected/affiliated persona and seeks to find a solution from amongst those responsible for the crisis in the first place,” he said.