Shift Kappan to Delhi hospital: Apex court
NEW DELHI : The Supreme Court on Wednesday, overlooked arguments by the Uttar Pradesh government and ordered it to shift jailed journalist Siddique Kappan to a hospital in Delhi for better medical treatment, observing that it is the duty of the state to protect health and life of undertrials too.
“Life of everybody is valuable. We are concerned only about his health. It is the duty of the state also to protect him when his health is concerned. That’s the most important issue,” remarked a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) NV Ramana.
The bench, which included justices Surya Kant and AS Bopanna, asked solicitor general Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the UP government, to ensure that Kappan was admitted in one of the government hospitals in the national capital for a proper treatment. “He (Kappan) can be taken back to Mathura jail after the doctors opine that he can be discharged. We are also disposing of this writ petition. He can go to the trial court for any other relief... We haven’t gone on titles of petitioner or anything else, but it is a humanitarian issue,” the bench told the S-G, who strongly opposed any order on shifting Kappan to a hospital outside UP.
The law officer was responding to a claim by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) that Kappan was chained to a hospital bed in Mathura’s KM Medical College after he collapsed in bathroom at the Mathura jail and later tested positive for Covid-19.
Mehta sought to undermine the credibility of the body, seemed to suggest that Kappan had been hospitalised in Uttar Pradesh despite a shortage of hospital beds in the state, with even influential (“huge” in his own words) people unable to find beds, and then finally argued that hospitalising him in Delhi would mean evicting a Covid positive person. But the court persisted.
The order came on a joint plea by the Kerala Union of Working Journalists (KUWJ) and Kappan’s wife that the scribe required immediate medical care after he had collapsed in bathroom at the Mathura jail and later tested positive for COVID-19 in the antigen test. They claimed Kappan, who was diabetic and also had heart conditions, was chained to the hospital bed. Mehta claimed on Tuesday that this was not the case.
Kappan, secretary of the Delhi unit of KUWJ, was arrested on October 5 last year while on his way to Hathras in UP after the gangrape of a 19-year-old woman who died in hospital of injuries she suffered in the sexual assault. He was later booked under the terror charge over his alleged association with the now-banned Students Islamic Movement of India and its alleged off-shoot, the Popular Front of India.