Women’s rights, monsoon, infra: HC’s key rulings

The court formulated committees to assess the medical infrastructure of state-run hospitals and to reconsider Delhi’s financial, physical and administrative infrastructure, in light of the growing population.

In the last 365 days, the Delhi high court took up critical cases pertaining but not limited to the Capital’s politics, infrastructure and rights of women and courtrooms witnessed landmark judgments and significant rulings with far-reaching implications.

Police stand guard in front of Delhi high court in New Delhi.

The court formulated committees to assess the medical infrastructure of state-run hospitals and to reconsider Delhi’s financial, physical and administrative infrastructure, in light of the growing population.

It also passed a series of directives aimed at streamlining the city’s drainage system, addressing encroachment of Yamuna floodplains, waste management in the river, and prioritising the health and welfare of animals and citizens by ordering relocation of animal dairies at Bhalswa and Ghazipur.

In the first month of 2024, the high court delivered several verdicts that focused on protecting the rights of women — on January 6, the high court held that absence of a law that makes adultery an offence cannot provide individuals with a blanket immunity of marrying another person secretly during the subsistence of their first marriage.

On January 8, the court took a grim view of the rising instances of women being killed for giving birth to girls.

In February, the high court passed a ruling governing the right of adoption. On February 20, the court held that the right to adopt is not a fundamental right, nor do prospective adoptive parents have the right to choose whom to adopt.

Later in August, the court took up the case of three students drowning at a coaching centre in Old Rajendra Nagar in which it hauled up the police, civic body and the state government at once, saying that the city’s infrastructure was “outdated”.

It transferred the probe to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

In October, the high court delivered a landmark judgment on reproductive rights, as it granted the parents of a deceased 30-year-old man the right to use his cryopreserved semen for posthumous reproduction by extending the definition of property to include reproductive materials.

The court asserted that genetic material is a part of an individual’s biological estate and acknowledged that the same can be transferred to legal heirs. On the same day, the court, in another ruling, directed the Centre to establish a national fund for rare diseases.

In November, it also effectively paved the way for the import of author Salman Rushdie’s controversial 1988 book The Satanic Verses, saying that an import ban appeared to be “non-existent” after authorities told the court that they could not trace an official notification on the restriction.

On December 23, the high court also approved the demolition of the crumbling Signature View Apartments in Mukherjee Nagar, criticising the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) for endangering the lives of hundreds of residents.

Though the court delivered these transformative rulings, a shadow of controversy hung over the process adopted by it to designate senior advocates.

Lastly, the year saw chief justice Manmohan handing over the baton to acting chief justice Vibhu Bakhru, pursuant to his elevation to the Supreme Court.