Harish Rana, First in India To Be Allowed Passive Euthanasia, Breathes His Last At AIIMS Delhi

New Delhi: Harish Rana, the first Indian to be allowed passive euthanasia by the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement this month, breathed his last at AIIMS, Delhi on Tuesday.

Earlier this month, the top court allowed the withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment for the 32-year-old, who had remained in a permanent vegetative state for more than 13 years after a severe accident. 

While the historic verdict reignited the debate around the “right to die with dignity” in the country which has usually been very defensive about passive euthanasia, the case drew national spotlight on the tragic life of Rana and the long legal battle fought by his family.

Who was Harish Rana?

Harish Rana was a young student who suffered catastrophic brain injuries in 2013 after falling from the fourth floor of a building in Chandigarh. The accident caused severe head trauma that left him with quadriplegia and irreversible brain damage, placing him in a permanent vegetative state.

At the time of the accident, Rana was in his late teens and pursuing higher education. After the fall, he never regained consciousness and remained completely dependent on medical support for survival. Doctors assessed him as having 100 percent disability and no realistic chance of recovery.

For more than a decade, Rana’s life was sustained through clinically assisted nutrition and hydration, administered through feeding tubes. He was unable to move, communicate, or respond meaningfully to his surroundings.

His elderly parents cared for him for years, managing his treatment and daily needs despite the emotional and financial strain. The Supreme Court later acknowledged the family’s “selfless care” throughout the prolonged illness.

The Legal Battle

After years of medical stagnation and no signs of improvement, Rana’s parents approached the courts seeking permission to withdraw life-sustaining treatment, arguing that their son was being kept alive artificially with no hope of recovery.

The case triggered a complex legal debate over whether removing feeding tubes-used to provide nutrition and hydration-should be considered passive euthanasia or active euthanasia, which remains illegal in India.

Initially, courts were reluctant to grant permission, reasoning that removing feeding tubes could effectively cause death by starvation. However, Rana’s family continued their legal fight, arguing that such medical interventions should be classified as life-sustaining treatment, making their withdrawal legally permissible under existing euthanasia guidelines.

The Verdict

In its final ruling on March 11, 2026, a Supreme Court bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Viswanathan permitted Rana’s parents to discontinue medical support, observing that the central question in such cases is not whether death is in a patient’s best interest, but whether continuing life-sustaining treatment truly serves the patient’s best interests.

The decision relied on the court’s earlier judgment in the 2018 Common Cause case, which recognised the right to die with dignity as part of Article 21 of the Constitution.

The court also clarified that clinically assisted nutrition and hydration may be treated as life-sustaining medical treatment, meaning it can be withdrawn under strict safeguards when a patient is in an irreversible vegetative state and medical boards confirm the prognosis.

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