Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust & ANR filed a writ petition on concerns with the criteria being employed by the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) for administering second line treatment to persons suffering from HIV/AIDS. The Supreme Court had issued directives for enhancing the extent and efficacy of treatment administered to HIV/AIDS patients. NACO submitted an “Office Memorandum” in response to that public interest litigation. The writ challenged the memo’s terms.
On December 16th, 2010, an update was issued regarding the decision which stated that the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unite will organize a meeting in January 2011 with people living with HIV and NACO to further explain the order and any subsequent issues with the rollout program. An application was later filed challenging NACO guidelines limiting the provision of second line anti-retroviral (ARV) treatment to widows, children, those below the poverty line, and those who had been on first line ARVs in the Government Programme for two years previously. On December 2, 2013, the case came up for final disposal before the Supreme Court, and NACO submitted an affidavit stating that most of the outstanding issues had been resolved. Senior counsel for the petitioners submitted that most of outstanding issues had been taken care of, as reflected in the affidavit, however, four issues still subsisted. The Court subsequently disposed of the petition, giving liberty to the petitioners to make separate submissions on the four outstanding issues. An order to that effect was issued on December 2, 2013.
This case is an example of the Lawyers’ Collective (representing Sankalp Rehabilitation) utilizing public interest litigation as a means to monitor implementation of the National ARV Rollout Programme. While significant problems with implementation remain, this public interest litigation significantly impacted government policy and pushed to widen access to HIV/AIDS treatment.
For their contributions, special thanks to ESCR-Net member: the Program on Human Rights and the Global Economy (PHRGE) at Northeastern University.
Sahara House, Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust & Anr., Voluntary Health Association of Punjab, Common Cause
