Senior Advocate Harish Salve on April 23 rescued himself from being an amicus curiae in the matter to assist the SC suo motu proceedings on shortage of oxygen and mismanagement by the Centre on the COVID-19 crisis.
The top court said it would take suo moto cognizance of four issues - supply of oxygen, supply of essential drugs, method and manner of vaccination, and state's power to declare lockdown.
"Please permit to recuse from the case," senior advocate, Harish Salve said and pleaded to withdraw from the as amicus curiae.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, who is demitting office as the CJI Friday itself, rapped some senior advocates for making statements without reading its order passed on April 22 and observed that it did not stop high courts from hearing cases related to COVID-19 management in the country.
The bench, also comprising Justices L N Rao and S R Bhat, granted time to the Centre to file response in the case and posted it for hearing on April 27.
“You have imputed motives to us without reading our order,” the bench told senior advocate Dushyant Dave, who was appearing in the matter.
“We are also pained at reading what some senior lawyers have to say on Salve's appointment as amicus in the matter,” the bench said, adding that it was a "collective decision" of all the judges at the bench.
Salve in his response said that he wants to recuse because of the questions being raised over his friendship with CJO Bobde.Solicitor General Tushar Mehta also said that it is very unfortunate that many virtual media platforms are abusing this process of appointing Harish Salve as Amicus Curiae in the case.
Mehta requested Salve not to withdraw from the case as the amicus on the ground that no one should succumb to such pressure tactics.
Chief Justice of India SA Bobde on April 23 said that the Supreme Court was “not happy” to read what supposedly senior advocates of the top court said regarding its decision to take up Covid-19 related matters on a suo moto basis.
“There was no intention to take over the cases from the High Courts and therefore the criticism was unfounded,” Bobde said on his last working day as the CJI.
The SC had on April 22 said it expects the Centre to come out with a “national plan” to deal with proper distribution of oxygen and essential drugs for the patients.Meanwhile, the country logged over 3.32 lakh new Covid cases, once again the highest-ever daily count recorded in the world, and 2,263 deaths since yesterday.
Some states have also reported shortage of vaccines, ahead of the expansion of the vaccination drive to all adults above 18 from May 1.
(With inputs from PTI)