Gitanjali Angmo files appeal against Delhi HC’s refusal to shift Sonam Wangchuk to Medanta hospital

Gitanjali J Angmo, wife of activist Sonam Wangchuk, has filed an appeal before a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court challenging a single-judge's refusal to direct that Wangchuk be shifted from Safdarjung Hospital to Medanta Hospital in Gurugram [Gitanjali Angmo Vs Union of India].

Climate activist Sonam Wangchuk began an indefinite hunger strike at Delhi's Jantar Mantar on June 28, in solidarity with the youth-led "Cockroach Janta Party" movement, demanding accountability for repeated examination paper leaks and the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan. 

On July 18, the Delhi police removed him from the protest site and shifted him to Safdarjung Hospital on concerns about his health condition.

However, the following day, Angmo, moved the Delhi High Court seeking permission to transfer him to a private hospital, alleging that his family had lost faith in Safdarjung Hospital due to a lack of transparency over his treatment and medical reports. Her counsel contended that he was being kept there under conditions amounting to illegal detention.

Yesterday (July 19) a single-judge of the High Court prima facie found that the government’s decision to shift Wangchuk from the site of his hunger strike at Jantar Mantar to Safdarjung Hospital was not arbitrary. She, therefore, declined to grant any interim relief on Angmo's plea for Wangchuk's shift out of Safdarjung hospital.

Angmo has now challenged Justice Pushkarna's decision.

According to the appeal filed by her, the single judge's order effectively takes away Wangchuk’s right to determine the course of his medical treatment and places the ultimate authority with the medical team attending to him.

Thus, the single judge's order violates Wangchuk’s bodily autonomy and allows doctors to override the choices of a conscious and competent adult.

The appeal contends that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right of a competent adult to refuse medical treatment and to choose the hospital where such treatment is received.

The appeal has also alleged that Wangchuk's continued hospitalisation at Safdarjung without consent violates his personal liberty, bodily autonomy and right to protest.

Angmo has further questioned the hospital’s claim that Wangchuk’s potassium level had fallen to 2.9. According to the appeal, independent tests subsequently recorded potassium levels of 3.6 and 3.76, which were within the normal range.

The single judge had, however, noted that Wangchuk’s sugar and sodium levels were below the normal range and that his potassium level was stated to be dangerously low.

While refusing interim relief, Justice Pushkarna had said that the medical team would take the ultimate decision regarding the assessment of Wangchuk’s condition in accordance with strict medical protocols

The appeal now filed by Angmo seeks the setting aside and stay of this single-judge order. Angmo has urged the Court to allow her and Wangchuk to choose the medical facility and treatment. She has also sought the disclosure of his complete medical records and access for his lawyers and private doctors.

She has further sought a restraint against the administration of any medicine, fluid or medical intervention without Wangchuk’s free and informed consent.

Two days before Wangchuk was shifted from Jantar Mantar, a Division Bench of the High Court had directed the government to regularly monitor his health and take whatever medical intervention was required to check his deteriorating condition.

However, neither Wangchuk nor Angmo was a party to those proceedings, Angmo's appeal has pointed out. Further, the July 16 order only permitted medical monitoring and did not authorise Wangchuk’s forcible removal from the protest site or his continued confinement at a government hospital, the appeal argues.

The appeal has been filed through advocates Bahuli Sharma, Susan Maria Mathew, Ridhi Arora, Suryaansh Kishan Razdan and Yoshit Jain.