The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea by the Gautam Gambhir Foundation against a Delhi High Court's order, allowing proceedings against it for alleged hoarding of drugs like Fabiflu and oxygen for distribution among patients during the second Covid wave.
"People were running helter skelter for medicines drugs etc, suddenly a trust comes and says we will give you medicines. This is not done," a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah told Foundation's counsel senior advocate Kailash Vasdev.
The counsel sought a stay on the High Court's order based on which Drug Controller had inquired and prima facie found the foundation and some AAP MLAs guilty of hoarding Fabiflu and oxygen for distribution among patients.
"You can pursue your remedies in High Court. But we cannot help you. How can we stay the process," the bench asked the counsel.
Gambhir, a former cricketer, is at present a Lok Sabha MP from Delhi.
The bench also pointed out people were compelled to pay high prices during the crisis.
"We did not want to say this but we also have our ears to the ground. It is a process you have to go through. You are in public life," the bench added.
The Delhi High Court had in May said politicians have no business to hoard stocks of Covid-19 medicines and oxygen in view of shortage in supply.
Delhi police, in its initial inquiry, gave a clean chit to cricketer-turned-MP Gautam Gambhir, Delhi Congress President Anil Kumar Chaudhary, Ex MLA Mukesh Sharma, BJP leader Harish Khurana, AAP MLA Dilip Pandey and Youth Congress chief Srinivas among others. The questioning of Srinivas had created a huge political storm.
(Published 26 July 2021, 08:59 IST)
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