Aruna Shanbaug case

Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug (1 June 1948 – 18 May 2015), was an Indian nurse who was at the centre of attention in a court case on euthanasia after spending over 41 years in a vegetative state as a result of sexual assault.

Aruna Shanbaug was born in a Konkani Brahmin family 1948 in Haldipur, Uttar Kannada, Karnataka.

She worked as a nurse at the King Edward Memorial Hospital (KEM) in Mumbai.

At the time of the attack, she was engaged to a doctor employed at the same hospital.

In 1973, while working as a junior nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, Shanbaug was sexually assaulted by a hospital janitor, and remained in a vegetative state following the assault.

On 27 November 1973, Shanbaug, then 25 years old, was sexually assaulted by a male sweeper on contract at the King Edward Memorial Hospital.

The attack occurred while she was changing clothes in the hospital basement.

He choked her with a dog chain and raped her.

This cut off oxygen to her brain, resulting in a brain stem contusion, cervical cord injury, and cortical blindness.

She was discovered at 7:45 am the following morning by a cleaner.

Shanbaug remained in a vegetative state from 1973 until her death in 2015.

Sohanlal Bhartha Valmiki was caught and convicted of assault and robbery, and he served two concurrent seven-year sentences, being released in 1980.

He was not convicted of rape, sexual molestation, or unnatural sexual offense, the last of which could have been punished with life imprisonment.

Journalist and human rights activist Pinki Virani attempted to track down Sohanlal; she believes that Sohanlal changed his name after leaving prison but continued to work in a Delhi hospital, and since neither the King Edward Memorial Hospital nor the court that tried Sohanlal kept a file photo of him, Virani's search failed.

Other reports claimed he had subsequently died of AIDS or tuberculosis.

Shortly after Shanbaug's death was announced, however, Sohanlal was tracked down by Mumbai-based journalist Dnyanesh Chavan from Marathi daily Sakal to his father-in-law's village of Parpa in western Uttar Pradesh.

He was found to be still living, married with a family, and working as a labourer and cleaner in a power station.

After his release from prison, he returned to his ancestral village of Dadupur in western Uttar Pradesh before moving to Parpa in the late 1980s.

When interviewed, Sohanlal described his version of the assault, claiming it had been committed in a "fit of rage" and that he had no clear recollection of when it had taken place or what he may have done, though he denied raping her and said that it "must have been someone else".

Sohanlal, then a hospital janitor, had a difficult relationship with Shanbaug, his superior.

He says that "there was an argument and a physical fight" when Shanbaug refused to give him leave to visit his ill mother-in-law and said that she would write him up for poor work.

Following the attack, nurses in Mumbai went on strike demanding improved conditions for Shanbaug and better working conditions for themselves.

In the 1980s, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (BMC) made two attempts to move Shanbaug outside the KEM Hospital to free the bed she had been occupying for seven years.

KEM nurses launched a protest, and the BMC abandoned the plan.

On 17 December 2010, the Supreme Court, while admitting the plea to end the life made by activist-journalist Pinki Virani, sought a report on Shanbaug's medical condition from the hospital in Mumbai and the government of Maharashtra.

On 24 January 2011, after Shanbaug had been in this state for 37 years, the Supreme Court of India responded to a plea for euthanasia filed by journalist Pinki Virani, setting up a medical panel to examine her.

The court rejected the petition on 7 March 2011.

However, in its landmark opinion, it allowed passive euthanasia in India.

On 24 January 2011, a three-member medical panel was established under the Supreme Court's directive.

After examining Shanbaug, the panel concluded that she met "most of the criteria of being in a permanent vegetative state".

On 7 March 2011, the Supreme Court, in a landmark judgement, issued a set of broad guidelines legalizing passive euthanasia in India.

These guidelines for passive euthanasia—i.e. the decision to withdraw treatment, nutrition, or water—establish that the decision to discontinue life support must be taken by parents, spouse, or other close relatives, or in the absence of them, by a "next friend".

The decision also requires court approval.

In its judgement, the court declined to recognize Virani as the "next friend" of Aruna Shanbaug, and instead treated the KEM hospital staff as the "next friend."

"We do not mean to decry or disparage what Ms. Pinki Virani has done. Rather, we wish to express our appreciation of the splendid social spirit she has shown. We have seen on the internet that she has been espousing many social causes, and we hold her in high esteem. All that we wish to say is that however much her interest in Aruna Shanbaug may be it cannot match the involvement of the KEM hospital staff who have been taking care of Aruna day and night for 38 years."

Since the KEM Hospital staff wished that Aruna Shanbaug be allowed to live, Virani's petition to withdraw life support was declined.

However, the court further stipulated that the KEM hospital staff, with the approval of the Bombay High Court, had the option of withdrawing life support if they changed their mind:

"However, assuming that the KEM hospital staff at some future time changes its mind, in our opinion in such a situation the KEM hospital would have to apply to the Bombay High Court for approval of the decision to withdraw life support."

On 25 February 2014, while hearing a PIL filed by NGO Common Cause, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India said that the prior opinion in the Aruna Shanbaug case was based on a wrong interpretation of the Constitution Bench's opinion in Gian Kaur v. State of Punjab.

Shanbaug died of pneumonia on 18 May 2015, after being in a persistent vegetative state for nearly 42 years.