New Delhi: In a significant step toward addressing the humanitarian and public health crisis around AIIMS, the Delhi High Court, led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia, passed a detailed order on Monday in W.P.(C) 380/2026, directing urgent structural and administrative interventions to improve shelter and sanitation arrangements for outstation patients and attendants residing around major hospitals in the national capital.
The Court allowed an intervention application filed by advocates Simran Chawdhary and Shambhavi Singh on behalf of intervenor Dushyant Sejwal.
The intervenors highlighted severe breaches of the Infection Control Guidelines, 2020, issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, particularly in the context of mixed accommodation of immuno-compromised and infectious patients, as well as the lack of hygienic bathrooms, clean water, and proper waste management in shelters near AIIMS.
Noting the “grim ground reality” starkly different from official claims, the Bench cited night-time photographs submitted by the intervenors and a field report by ASG Chetan Sharma and CGSC Ashish Dixit, who personally visited the shelter zones around AIIMS. The Court observed that “the State and its agencies cannot shirk from their constitutional duty” to provide adequate shelter, especially for those seeking treatment under distress.
Significantly, the Court has ordered the formation of two committees:
A Short-Term Committee, chaired by the Principal District Judge (South), to coordinate immediate measures such as erecting shelter tents in subways and hospital peripheries and ensure cooperation among AIIMS, DUSIB, DJB, DMRC, and multiple municipal and health bodies.
A Long-Term Committee, to be advised by the intervenors and other stakeholders, which will consider ethnographic evidence, statutory frameworks, and new models for hospital-linked shelter governance.
This case, titled The Court on Its Own Motion v. Union of India & Ors., continues to be monitored at the highest level and reflects an evolving jurisprudence on the right to health, shelter, and dignity under Article 21 of the Constitution
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