HC expresses shock at the state of inmates in north-Delhi ashram

How can any sane person live in such conditions?: court

April 22, 2022 01:14 am | Updated 01:14 am IST - NEW DELHI

The Delhi High Court on Thursday said it cannot shut its eyes to the “shocking” conditions of women inmates at Adhyatmik Vidhyalaya, a north Delhi-based ashram.

After inspecting this ashram in 2017, a court-appointed team had found “over 100 girls were housed in animal-like conditions with no privacy”.

On Thursday a Bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla said, “There is very thorough indoctrination... How can we accept that any sane person would live in these conditions? Can we shut our eyes to it? Who is funding it? Who is managing it? This is shocking that this is going on in the Capital.”

The court’s observation came on a petition by the parents of a girl staying in the ashram. The parents, in their plea, said they were denied interaction with their daughter by the management of the ashram. The senior citizens said they had come all the way from Hyderabad to Delhi to meet their daughter on March 27, 2022, but were denied access.

“We can’t force anybody to live with their parents but they can’t insist that the institute be run in a covert way. We are not saying shut the institution (but) there has to be a supervising eye,” the High Court said.

During the hearing, the counsel for the ashram opposing the takeover by the Delhi government submitted that their rights were protected under the Constitution.

“We are not for a moment suggesting that the respondent institution and its inmates should not profess their spiritual and religious beliefs...so long as they do not contravene any law or constitutional provision,” the High Court said.

“No minority institution gets a licence by being such an institution to conduct its affairs so as to violate the fundamental rights of the individuals, particularly right to life and personal liberty… Even if GNCTD were to take over and appoint an administrator the freedom of the inmates to exercise their religious and spiritual rights would not be infracted,” the High Court added.

The High Court added that was inclined to direct the Delhi government to take over the institution’s management and asked the government counsel to seek instructions.

The founder of the ashram, a self-styled spiritual guru - Virender Dev Dixit - was declared an absconder by the Central Bureau of Investigation in 2019 after he was accused in two rape cases. The investigating agency has offered a reward of Rs 5 lakh for information leading to his arrest.

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