Delhi HC allows Sonam Wangchuk to be immediately shifted to Medanta Hospital

YESTERDAY,  the Delhi High Court passed an Order directing that activist Sonam Wangchuk be shifted immediately to Medanta Hospital in Gurugram, after doctors flagged concerns over his declining health, including a low total leukocyte count and abnormal potassium levels in his blood. The decision came a day after the protest march in which Wangchuk was set to participate.

The appeal arose from an order passed on July 19, in which Justice Mini Pushkarna declined to grant similar interim relief and held that the activist’s forcible removal from the protest site at Jantar Mantar and his subsequent transfer to the hospital did not constitute arbitrary action. The High Court had also observed that the assessment of Wangchuk’s medical condition would ultimately rest with the medical team treating him.

Submissions before the Court 

On Tuesday, the bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia examined medical reports and heard directly from the medical team from AIIMS and Wangchuk’s regular physician who the family had been consulting before his uprooting from the protest site. It was observed that potassium levels were low; while there was a rise in levels of uric acid and blood urea. 

Dr. Satish Lamba, who was monitoring Wangchuk's health for 20 days, told the High Court that these changes were expected physiological effects of prolonged fasting as the body shifts from glucose to fat for energy and does not indicate immediate threat to life. The doctor also informed the High Court that he was not allowed to meet Wangchuk at Safdargunj. 

“Doctor, you just tell us. You have been practicing on the private side. As per the accepted, proclaimed medical norms, medical protocol, any private doctor is ever allowed to visit any government hospital?,” Chief Justice Upadhyaya asked. 

Dr. Lamba replied in affirmative and said that he himself had visited patients in the past after permission was granted from the unit head. 

Appearing for petitioner Gitanjali Angmo, advocate Akhil Sibal submitted to the High Court that according to the medical opinion of Dr. Anand Kakkar (Wangchuk’s regular doctor) while some parameters were low, not unusual after days of fasting, the case did not warrant any invasive intervention. Oral measures and monitoring of vitals and electrolytes were advised instead.

The treating doctors also informed the High Court that total leukocyte count and haemoglobin were low which increased the risk for infection. Their opinion remained that in the best interest of his health, which required continuous clinical monitoring, Wangchuk remained under monitoring of the hospital itself.

“At the moment within the hospital, people who are allowed to go and meet him are supposed to be fully gowned, capped, and masked,” informed  Dr. Nikhil Tandon, director of AIIMS. “Multiple things, of course, are expected when you fast. But that doesn't mean just because something is expected, it's normal,” he added. 

Sibal informed the High Court that while there are some parameter changes, only monitoring is being proposed. Wangchuk, he said, wished to assert the rights that emanate from Articles 19 and 21.

“He is on a hunger strike. The question is, at what stage, can and would the court intervene and confine him?,” he said. He also placed before the High Court, concerns raised in Wangchuk's handwritten note to Safdarjung Hospital in which he highlighted his “anguish” at what he was facing at the hospital. 

This led to the proposal from the judges that he be shifted to Medanta Hospital. They noted a consensus among the medical experts that the patient required constant, continuous monitoring. The only point of difference was where that monitoring should take place.