The Delhi High Court on Monday directed the social welfare secretary of the national capital’s government to visit Asha Kiran, a residential institution for individuals with intellectual disabilities, saying that 14 deaths there in one month cannot be a coincidence, Live Law reported.
At least 14 persons died at the mental health facility in Delhi’s Rohini area in July allegedly due to malnutrition and other health problems, according to reports.
A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela on Monday asked the Delhi government’s social welfare secretary to carry out an inspection of the facility on Tuesday.
The court also directed the Delhi Jal Board to test the quality of drinking and sewage water on the premises. It listed the matter for hearing on Wednesday.
The bench was hearing a public interest litigation filed by non-government organisation Samadhan Abhiyan seeking a court-monitored probe into the deaths at Asha Kiran.
The petition sought a Central Bureau of Investigation inquiry into the matter and a social audit of all such residential institutions in the national capital.
The petitioners, represented by advocates Abhigyan Siddhant and Anurag Sahay, told the court that there was an “absolute collapse of the governance in Delhi, as can be seen from the aforesaid incidents,” The Indian Express reported.
It urged the court to step in to “save the residents of Delhi from suffering terrible fate due to the incompetence” of the authorities.
The counsel representing the Delhi government told the court that only one of the persons who had died was a child, Live Law reported. The counsel also said that those who had died suffered from a severe category of intellectual disabilities and other comorbidities.
It noted that a majority of the deaths took place in the hospital where the patients had been taken to and that the post-mortem examination reports were awaited.
In response, the bench said that there were two aspects concerning the matter: a criminal investigation to look into the deaths to fix responsibility and the remedial measures that must be taken at the earliest.
“Enquiry will wait but what needs to be done at the earliest is that you carry out curative measures,” the court said, according to Live Law. “If there is some problem, find it first and foremost.”
The bench said that some of the residents should be shifted to other facilities if there were too many occupants at Asha Kiran.
The court action on Monday came following reports of the deaths on Friday. The Times of India reported that there had been at least 12 deaths, mostly of women, at the residential institution between July 15 and July 31. Only one death was reported in the first 15 days of July.
The symptoms of the patients, diarrhoea and vomiting, were similar as the toll increased, the newspaper reported. Several other patients are being treated at a nearby hospital.
Following the report, the Delhi government on Friday ordered an inquiry into the deaths.
The facility, which started functioning in 1989, has 1,000 residents instead of its capacity of 500 persons, according to The Times of India.
In February 2017, the Delhi Commission for Women decried 11 deaths that had taken place within two months at Asha Kiran. The revelation came after Swati Maliwal, the chief of the panel at the time, and other staff carried out a surprise inspection at the facility, where they said they were “disturbed” by its inhumane living conditions.
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