Thorough indoctrination of women inmates at Rohini ashram, says Delhi HC

Delhi government’s standing counsel Santosh Kumar Tripathi told the court that he will take instructions from the Women and Child Development department with respect to the suggestion to take over the management of Adhyatmik Vidhyalaya-run ashram. The court will hear the matter on Monday.

“There is a very thorough indoctrination. How can we accept that any sane person can live in these conditions. These women are in a trap, though they may say that they are there out of their free will but can we just follow that and accept and shut our eyes to it. This man is absconding, he is by proxy continuing to defend this litigation,” the bench of Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Navin Chawla said.

While addressing the government counsel, the court said that the ashram needs to be taken over by the government as it cannot be run in a covert way. “We have seen these kinds of institutions. People today are languishing in jail because they have been convicted of rape etc, all these babas. This is going on in the capital. This is shocking,” it said, adding that it does not stand to reason that somebody in his or her mind will stay in those conditions.

The court on April 19 directed the police to ensure that the inmates presently housed at the facility in Delhi are not taken out and removed to any other facility.

During the resumed hearing of the case, Advocate Nandita Rao – who along with other team members had inspected the ashram on court orders in December 2017 and found grim living conditions there – submitted that the ashram was in violation of the Women’s and Children’s Institutions (Licensing) Act, 1956 and the rules framed by the Delhi government.

The division bench said that the rules oblige the superintendent or in-charge of the institution to hear and redress the complaints of the inmates and see that each of them is provided with proper food and clothing. It noted that Rao’s report of 2017 reveals a shocking state of affairs as they found there was only a single door for multiple toilets and other poor living conditions at the ashram.

On an argument made by the counsel representing the ashram that the government takeover would violate their rights under Article 25 and 26 of the constitution, the court said, “We are clear in our mind that no minority institution gets a licence only by being such an institution to conduct its affairs so as to violate the fundamental rights of an individual, particularly the right to life and personal liberty guaranteed by Article 21 the Constitution of India.”

The court also said that it falls on the State to ensure that infraction of rights is prevented. “We are not, for a moment, suggesting that the respondent institution and its inmates should not profess their religious and spiritual beliefs. They are free to do that so long as they do not contravene any law or constitutional provision,” said the court.

The High Court in December 2017 had directed the CBI to investigate the alleged illegal confinement of women and minor girls in the ashram, after hearing a PIL filed by an NGO. While Dixit was charge-sheeted by the agency later, he was declared a proclaimed offender in September 2019 by Rouse Avenue court and is yet to be arrested.

The inspection team in their report had earlier told the court that over 100 girls were housed in “animal-like conditions with no privacy” at the facility. Rao had expressed grave apprehensions about the health of inmates and said that several appeared to be under the influence of some kind of drugs or narcotic substances.