HC directs Asha Kiran water testing, says 14 TB deaths can’t be coincidence
A bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedeala directed the Delhi government’s social welfare secretary to file a report on the condition of the shelter home
The Delhi high court on Monday directed the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) to test the quality of water at government-run Asha Kiran shelter home for the intellectually challenged, saying that 14 deaths there in a short time due to tuberculosis (TB) cannot be a coincidence.
A bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Tushar Rao Gedeala directed the social welfare secretary to visit the home and file a report on its condition. It said the need of the hour was to salvage the situation and take corrective measures.
“It is strange that they all died of the same cause. There cannot be an outbreak of TB in a shelter home. There are too many deaths in a short span of time...14 deaths...It cannot be a coincidence,” the bench told standing counsel Sameer Vashisht, who appeared for the Delhi government. “There have to be curative measures that need to be put in place.”
The court, which also directed decongesting of the shelter home, was hearing NGO Samadhan Abhiyan’s plea seeking the constitution of a retired high court judge-led committee for conducting a court-monitored probe into the deaths or a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe.
The petition sought directions for the Delhi government to conduct a social security audit of all the shelter homes it runs and to an “actual and correct picture” of their living conditions.
Filed through advocates Abhigyan Siddhant and Anurag Sahay, the plea said the inquiry the Delhi government has ordered cannot be impartial as it is in direct control of the shelter home as well as the DJB. The plea added the Delhi government was trying to be a judge in its own cause, which cannot be allowed.
Vashisht handed over to the court a chart specifying the reasons that led to deaths at the shelter home. He said 13 out of 14 inmates died in hospital due to comorbidities.
The negligent conditions at Rohini’s Asha Kiran shelter home emerged in media reports on Friday, throwing authorities into a tizzy and triggering probes. The Delhi government ordered a magisterial inquiry into the case. Lieutenant governor VK Saxena directed chief secretary Naresh Kumar to initiate action against the administrator of the facility and bring out a white paper on the running of all such homes within three weeks.
According to the social welfare secretary’s report submitted to Saxena on August 2, 28 inmates lost their lives at the shelter home since January 2024. Minister Atishi also directed the additional chief secretary to submit a report.