KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Friday directed the state disaster management authority to step in to ensure a continuous supply of medical oxygen from Kerala Minerals and Metals, Kollam, a government of Kerala undertaking and a supplier of liquid oxygen in Kerala, in view of the circumstances where the hospitals are in need of the oxygen.
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas issued the order on the petition filed by VK Abdul Rahim, managing partner of a firm conducting transportation and supply of liquid oxygen to hospitals in Kollam, Kottayam, Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta, and Thiruvananthapuram districts. The petitioner the Kollam district collector's order directing him to supply 16.5 tons of liquid oxygen in the Kollam district.
Advocate Baby Thomas, counsel for the petitioner, argued that this order will adversely affect the supply of oxygen to other districts.
The government pleader submitted that the intention behind issuing the order was totally bonafide and was based on the request of the district medical officer, Kollam citing the reduced supply of oxygen. He also stated that it was not a blanket order and it was modified later by the collector.
The court asked the agency to transport oxygen to the hospitals in Pathanamthitta when the order is existing.
"This is a matter which should have been done by the state level, not at the district level. The disaster management authority is not above all. The pandemic affecting all over the country", observed the court.
The petitioner submitted that the order issued by the District collector Kollam was illegal.
KMML cannot be considered as a property of the Kollam district. The liquid oxygen from KMML ought to be supplied in several hospitals in other districts in the state also. The District Collector, Kollam cannot pass such an order which will defeat equitable distribution of liquid oxygen to hospitals in other districts. KMML submitted that the total capacity of its production is 70 tons per day and the supply is based upon the directives issued by Petroleum Explosives Safety Organisation (PESO).
The court stated that order was contrary to the unity of the state as a whole. KMML's supply cannot be confined to its service in a particular district. If required to be regulated, the supply of oxygen is certainly within the domain of the state government and not within the District Collector as the chairman of the Disaster management authority. The order was issued without jurisdiction, hence the order stayed for six weeks.