Though the Supreme Court has often said there is no hierarchy in the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, the right to lif...
Though the Supreme Court has often said there is no hierarchy in the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution, the right to life enshrined in Article 21 has a special place. After all, no other right can be sustained if one is dead.
In 1992, the Supreme Court made it absolutely categorical: there is a Constitutional imperative for the government to ensure access to health because it is an integral part of the right to life. When a person is denied healthcare, their life is in jeopardy and so are all their other rights. Implicit in this declaration is the obligation on the governments to run adequate healthcare services.
On Sunday evening, the Delhi government, after testing the political waters for a week to see if there would be any opposition, declared that hospital beds in Delhi would be reserved for residents of Delhi’s National Capital Territory – except for those needing treatment related to transplants, oncology and neurosurgery. The government went on to list several identity documents that would prove the eligibility of a person admitting herself to a hospital.
Rising cases
The decision was presumably taken as the number of Covid-19 patients in Delhi has been increasing rapidly: there were more than 27,500 positive...
