Overview
- After setting January 15 for a final order, the Supreme Court heard arguments and reserved its decision on withdrawing life-sustaining treatment for Harish Rana.
- The bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and K. V. Viswanathan met Rana’s parents and brother on January 13 and recorded their unanimous appeal to end prolonged interventions.
- Primary and secondary medical boards concluded Rana remains in a permanent vegetative state with negligible chance of recovery and recommended discontinuation of treatment, which the Centre acknowledged.
- Rana, now 32, has been dependent on a tracheostomy for breathing and a gastrostomy for nutrition since a 2013 fall that left him with 100% quadriplegic disability.
- The case, previously rejected by the Delhi High Court and earlier Supreme Court hearings in 2024, was reconsidered in December 2025 under the 2018 and 2023 passive euthanasia framework and could become the first court-approved application if granted.