O2 hoarding case: Booking importer under criminal law counterproductive, says Delhi Court

Granting bail to Matrix Cellular CEO Gaurav Khanna in a case relating to hoarding and black marketing of oxygen concentrators, a Delhi Court on Tuesday observed that merely booking people under criminal law is "counterproductive" and "shall create a further scarcity of already scarce medical devices"

"Mere booking of the manufacturers/importers under the criminal law without a regulatory regime in place and without any evidence just to show that the state is concerned about the problems of citizens in the procurement of life-saving medical devices, in my considered opinion, will be counter-productive and shall create a further scarcity of already scarce medical devices as it will discourage the manufacturers and importers from pushing their resources so as to make the essential medical devices available to the needy citizens," said Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Arun Kumar Garg of the Saket Court while granting bail to Khanna and others. 

The court while granting bail also came down heavily on the government and said that despite the high court's order, the government has failed to fix the prices of essential medical devices like oxygen concentrators. "Despite repeated directions by High Court, the govt is not coming forward to cap the price of essential medical devices. Nor any regulation has been made by the government for sale of the same by the importers to the government for its equitable distribution to the needy persons for reasons best known to them," it said. 

The Court further said that it was beyond comprehension as to why the provisions of Prevention of Black Marketing and Maintenance of Supplies of the Essential Commodities Act, 1980 are not being invoked by the state if the state wants to stop the black-marketing. The court also noted that the vacuum in the law shall be filled immediately with appropriate directions and regulations by the government. "...the vacuum in the law needs to be filled up by the legislature or for that matter by the executive by issuing appropriate regulations in pursuance to the powers delegated by the legislation to the executive," the court said. 

Apart from Khanna, the court also granted bail to Matrix Cellular company's Vice President Gaurav Suri, Business Development Executive Vikrant, and Satish Sethi, who is the Deputy General Manager of the said company.

(Credit-Pixabay/PTI)