The Supreme Court on Wednesday lauded the efforts of Maharashtra authorities in ensuring oxygen supply to Covid-19 patients in Mumbai and asked the Centre and the Delhi government to talk with the civic body officials of that city to learn about augmenting and managing the supply.

The observations were made during the hearing and in the order of the top court which stayed contempt proceedings initiated by the Delhi High Court against central government officials for non-compliance of direction to supply 700 MT of oxygen for Covid-19 patients to Delhi. A bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud took note of the submissions of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta that Mumbai managed with 275 MT of oxygen even when the active cases had crossed 92,000.  “I do applaud the Mumbai model. It is not a political model. As an officer of the court, not for Centre or state, we need to find a solution. People cannot run from pillar to post. This is not to undermine the efforts of Delhi,” the law officer said.