It also refused to accept Kejriwal’s plea for insulin, observing that a person suffering from hyperglycaemia cannot be administered insulin on the basis of his request.It ordered constitution of a medical board by director, AIIMS, for the chief minister’s treatment in jail.
‘ED,Tihar Jail misleading court’: AAP
The board will have to submit its report to the court of special judge Kaveri Baweja at the earliest specifying whether there is any requirement for administering insulin to Kejriwal at this juncture. If there is a need for any medical intervention by any specialist in future, the decision will be taken by the jail authorities in consultation with the medical board, which will have a senior endocrinologist and diabetologist.
Kejriwal, through his counsels – senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi and senior advocate Ramesh Gupta – had submitted before the court that denial of insulin by the jail authorities despite his repeated requests was a violation of his fundamental right to health and also a case of grave medical negligence.
The court, however, pointed out that “from the response of ED and the jail authorities, it has also emerged that the applicant has never requested for administering of insulin to him. Rather, the applicant is stated to have been off insulin since February 2024,” said the court.
In a 15-page order, the court has asked the board, yet to be constituted, to prescribe a diet and exercise plan considering Kejriwal’s medical requirements and data regarding his vital statistics and also physically examine him in jail.
CM will continue to be provided with home-cooked food, provided it is strictly in compliance with the diet prescribed by the medical board.
The court observed that the food items being provided as home-cooked food were quite different from the diet prescribed by his own doctor. “Illustratively stated, the diet chart of the applicant does not prescribe vegetables like potatoes and arbi and there is also no specific mention of mangoes,” it said.
The judge said she was “unable to fathom” as to why the CM’s family had been sending various items not part of his medically prescribed diet, like mangoes, sweets, aloo puri etc, as declared by Kejriwal himself.
Commenting on the argument by the CM’s counsel that the glycaemic index of mango is less as compared to white rice or brown rice, the court pointed out that Kejriwal’s own doctor didn’t prescribe mangoes to him as per the diet chart filed by CM before the court on April 1, 2024.
The order said the jail authorities shall ensure that there was no further deviation from the medically prescribed diet and any instance of non-compliance should immediately be brought to the notice of this court. It pointed out that the jail authorities were all along aware of what Kejriwal was consuming but neither tried to stop him, nor brought this to the attention of the court.
“It is stated that all inmates are provided round-the-clock medical attention in Delhi jails and the jail has its own health infrastructure in place and for emergencies care/specialised medical interventions, there are systems of referral to higher medical institutes,” the court noted.