Delhi HC to urgently hear plea to shift Sonam Wangchuk to private hospital

The Delhi High Court agreed to urgently hear activist Sonam Wangchuk's wife's plea seeking permission to shift him from Safdarjung Hospital to a private facility. The petition alleges involuntary hospitalisation, lack of transparency, and discrepancies in medical test results

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Sunday agreed to hear on an urgent basis a petition by activist Sonam Wangchuk’s wife seeking permission to shift him from Safdarjung Hospital to a private facility. The petition by Gitanjali J Angmo is expected to be heard by Justice Mini Pushkarna at 2:30 pm. Earlier, Angmo has said she has “lost faith” in Safdarjung hospital and wants to move the activist to a private facility of her choice before his health further deteriorates.

Angmo, in her petition before the high court, said despite repeated requests, the Safdarjung authorities disclosed “only selective information” to her, and their refusal to let Wangchuk shift to another hospital has prevented an “independent verification of his medical condition”.

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Expressing “dire concern” over her husband’s health, Angmo said she is “aggrieved by the clandestine and completely opaque nature” of the medical intervention, despite Wangchuk’s vital parameters being stable when he was removed from the protest site.

She added that the high court’s July 16 order to authorities to monitor Wangchuk’s health and medically intervene, if necessary, was passed ex-parte, and that the police forcibly removed the fasting activist from Jantar Mantar on Saturday by taking “colourable advantage” of the direction in the absence of any medical emergency.

“There existed no medical emergency or other circumstance warranting such abrupt and coercive intervention. The forcible removal was neither medically necessitated nor legally justified and constitutes a manifest infringement of Shri Sonam Wangchuk’s fundamental rights,” the petition filed through lawyers Bahuli Sharma, Susan Maria Mathew, Ridhi Arora, Suryaansh Kishan Razdan and Yoshit Jain states.

The plea also alleged that there is a “discrepancy” in Wangchuk’s potassium levels in the test done by Safdarjung and by “an independent agency at the behest of the Petitioner”.

“The respondents furnished the blood sample to the petitioner at 10:30 PM after an unexplained delay of nearly 10.5 hours (on Saturday). As apprehended by the petitioner, results of the tests conducted on these samples indicate a potassium level of 3.6 mg, much higher than the earlier disclosed level of 2.9 mg. This clearly reveals a significant discrepancy in test results provided by the respondents as compared to the tests conducted by an independent agency at the behest of the petitioner.

The mala fide conduct of the respondents is thus evident from the results,” the petition submitted. “The petitioner is, therefore, constrained to approach this Hon’ble Court seeking appropriate directions to secure unrestricted access to Shri Sonam Wangchuk by doctors who had been examining him for the last 20 days and his legal counsel; to permit his transfer to a hospital of the petitioner’s choice and allow independent medical examination and treatment by doctors and diagnostic centres of the petitioner’s and/or Shri Sonam Wangchuk’s choice; and to direct the respondents to immediately discharge/release Shri Sonam Wangchuk from his continued involuntary hospitalisation at Safdarjung hospital,” the plea further stated.

In a post on her X handle on Sunday, Angmo said no family should have to fight the system to choose where their loved one receive medical care and that the public health bulletin released by Safdarjung has “conveniently omitted” the actual number with respect to his potassium level.

“Despite repeated requests, the hospital has refused to discharge him or allow us to shift him to a private hospital of our choice. With around 30 police personnel stationed on our floor and well over 100 across the hospital, our movement is severely restricted. It is not medical care. It is illegal detention,” she stated.

“I have, therefore, moved the high court and sought an urgent hearing today, praying for permission to shift Sonam before his health deteriorates further. No family should have to fight the system simply to choose where their loved one receive medical care,” the petition stated.

Wangchuk was on Saturday taken forcibly to Safdarjung Hospital by the Delhi Police on the 21st day of his hunger strike. He has been on an indefinite hunger strike since June 28 in support of the CJP-led protest over alleged irregularities in the NEET examination and the reported deaths of students linked to the controversy.