Apex overreach

SC task force for oxygen supply is ill-judged

The Supreme Court’s decision to constitute a 12-member “National Task Force” to streamline and ensure the “effective and transparent” distribution of liquid medical oxygen to states and Union Territories is a well-meaning but ill-judged attempt to address this vexed question. It is undeniable that the Central government has failed to find a workable solution to the problem of oxygen delivery among states so that too many Covid-19 patients have tragically died simply for want of oxygen. But convening a task force under its own aegis amounts to judicial over-reach and, more to the point, is unlikely to prove more effective.

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