Charity can’t be at cost of others; Delhi HC on plea to distribute seized medical equipment

By Sushil Batra
New Delhi [India], June 26 (ANI): A public interest litigation (PIL) seeking distribution of PPE kits, health kits, face masks, sanitisers confiscated at Delhi Airport was withdrawn on Friday after the Delhi High Court expressed displeasure over the same observing that charity cannot be made at others’ cost.
A division bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan allowed the petitioner to withdraw the PIL and asked how can a seized property of others be used for charity work?
“Charity can’t be made at other’s cost. What if the owner gets releasing order of their property, which is currently seized,” the High Court observed.
The PIL, filed by one Hemant Manjani through advocate Mohit Kumar Hukumchand, sought directions to distribute the medical equipment confiscated at the Cargo Terminal of Indira Gandhi International Airport in the national capital among hospitals treating COVID-19 patients, health workers, police officials, sanitation workers, etc.
The plea had sought directions to the Central government through the Revenue Secretary, Department of Revenue, and Director General of Foreign Trade to distribute the seized PPE kits, health kits, face masks and sanitisers, etc.
“During the prevailing conditions of COVID-19, India was not having adequate medical equipment’s like ventilators, N-95 mask, PPE kits, sanitisers and that is when the government had decided that none of the abovementioned products could be exported out of the country and all the industries and factories were requested to make these products to make our country self-sufficient so that no one suffers due to insufficient equipment,” the plea said.
Citing several news articles, the plea said that over five lakh face masks, 1,000 PPE kits, sanitisers and other raw materials being illegally exported out of the country were intercepted at Delhi Airport.
“Subsequently, there were a lot of posts on social media and news articles, and are still continuing, on the issue of inadequate and inferior quality of PPE Kits supplies to all the health officials especially of hospitals which were only catering to COVID-19 patients,” it said.
“The medical equipment seized at the Cargo Terminal can be of great assistance to all the COVID fighters and keeping such crucial and vital health-related equipment and materials seized-up will not serve the interests of the society,” it added. (ANI)