Dangerous to allow anyone to hoard essentials: Supreme Court

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday said during a pandemic, when there is general scarcity of medicines and oxygen, it would be against public interest to permit individuals or NGOs to hoard these essential life saving ingredients even for distribution free of cost or for charity purposes.
This remark came from a bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud and M R Shah on a petition filed by Gautam Gambhir Foundation challenging a Delhi High Court order, on the basis of which the Drug Controller of Delhi had prima facie found the foundation and two AAP MLAs — Praveen Kumar and Imran Hussain, guilty of hoarding essential medicines in contravention of Drugs and Cosmetics Act.
Appearing for the Foundation, senior advocate Kailash Vasdev said the Gautam Gambhir Foundation had collaborated with drug suppliers, doctors and healthcare workers to distribute free of cost medicine Fabiflu worth Rs 29 lakh during the second wave of the pandemic.
Vasdev said there was no ulterior motive behind the distribution of medicines to the needy and it was done for free and without expecting any kind of favour or personal gain either from those who received the medicines, from the government or any other organisation. He said on the basis of the order, the Drug Controller has initiated prosecution. “People who have rendered service to people during the difficult period of panemic are being punished,” Vasdev said.
The bench said it is true that the HC passed the orders without making GGF a party to the PIL. “At the most, you were not made a party to the PIL. The HC had only asked for a status report from the Drug Controller. We will not interfere with HC order. But, we will give liberty to you to become a party before the pending case before the high court. You can appraise HC about your bonafides in doing the charity work.”
However, the bench expressed serious reservations against individuals and organisations procuring huge quantities of essential medicines, even for charity purposes. “Otherwise everyone capable will procure the essential medicines and start distributing these to whomever they thought were needy. During the second wave of pandemic, common men were running helter-skelter for essential medicines and oxygen and purchasing medicines at a high cost,” the bench said and cited the scarcity of Remdesivir injection and its sale in black market. It allowed Vasdev to withdraw the appeal and move the HC to become a party in the pending proceedings.
Delhi HC had taken serious exception to GGF procuring Fabiflu medicine during the second wave of Covid when there was a serious shortage of the medicine in the capital. The Drug Controller's first report giving a clean chit to Gambhir Foundation was trashed by HC, which termed the report not worth the paper in which it is written.
The HC had also taken exception to Gambhir’s statement in the media that he will continue to do such work. “We want to curb this malpractice. This is a pernicious activity. This tendency of people taking advantage and then trying to appear as a saviour when they themselves created the problem has to be denounced. And then, the person goes around saying he will do it again. If he does, we know how to deal with it,” the HC had said.