SC stays Allahabad HC's order directing state to improve health infrastructure in 4 months

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Allahabad High Court order in a suo motu case on COVID-19 management in the state. The Allahabad High Court had passed an order directing the state government to ensure that all nursing home beds in Uttar Pradesh must have oxygen facility within four months. The High Court had also directed the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that within a month every UP village has two ambulances with an ICU facility.

The vacation bench of Justice Vineet Saran and BR Gavai stayed the order after hearing the arguments of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta who represented the Uttar Pradesh government. SG Tushar Mehta said that the state government understands the anxiety of the High Court and health infrastructure can never be ignored, but the directions given by the High Court were impossible to comply with.

The SC bench, however, clarified that it has only stayed the May 17 order and not the suo moto proceedings pertaining to the management of the COVID-19 crisis.

"Staying the order doesn't mean states would stop working as per the advice of the courts," the bench clarified.

The Bench also said that High Courts while passing the order, must pass orders considering the possibility of their execution.

The Allahabad High Court on May 17 passed a slew of directions for the state government with regards to the provision of oxygen beds in all nursing homes, making ambulance with ICU facilities available in villages, upgrading medical colleges in time bound manner in the light of the devastating second wave of COVID-19 pandemic.

Point out to the direction of the High Court to provide ambulance with ICU facility to every village, SG Tushar Mehta informed the Supreme Court that there are 97,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh and the order of providing ambulance to each one of them within a month would be difficult to implement.

The Allahabad High Court had also suggested that the Government should take the vaccine manufacturing formula from companies to enable more companies to produce the vaccines. To this, SG Tushar Mehta submitted in the Supreme Court that the High Courts should refrain from passing directions in policy matters, especially when they can have trans-state and even trans-national ramifications.