NHRC issues notice to CS, DGP

Jammu, Nov 18: National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) India has taken suo motu cognizance of a media report that negligence of the authorities, in not maintaining the lift at a Super Speciality Hospital (SSH) in Jammu, resulted in the death of a 58-year-old woman.

Reportedly, the hospital lift abruptly started moving upwards with a high speed when she stepped into it, resulting in serious injuries to her.

The Commission has observed that the contents of the news report, if true, raise serious issues of violation of human rights of the victim woman.

Therefore, it has issued notices to the Chief Secretary (CS) and Director General of Police (DGP), UT of Jammu and Kashmir, calling for a detailed report on the matter within two weeks.

NHRC quoted the media report, carried on November 6, 2025, which stated that it took about 15 minutes to retrieve her from the lift.

“Citing negligence by the hospital, her relatives alleged that there was no lift operator or security guard present. They also alleged that the authorities failed to display any warning sign about the technical issues of the malfunctioning lift. The victim struggled in the ICU for five days before succumbing to her injuries,” the media report quoted by NGT stated.

However, the enquiry report, submitted by the Medical Superintendent Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) Jammu Dr Rehana Khurshid, regarding the incident, has denied the content of the media report.

The enquiry report mentioned that the victim Kanchan Arora was visiting Super speciality Hospital, Jammu in connection with the treatment of her husband who was admitted in the Ward No 6, Cardiology Unit-II for undergoing angiography treatment.

On November 1, at about 10.08 am, she approached the lift at the 3rd floor of Super Speciality Hospital, Jammu. “The lift person was standing nearby the lift as is seen in CCTV cameras. As per the statement of the lift operator, she suddenly collapsed in the lift. The lift operator opened the door, brought the patient out of the lift and shifted her to ICU immediately and was attended by the senior cardiac consultants, senior neuro anaesthesia consultants and other critical care team,” the enquiry report mentioned.

As per enquiry report, she (victim) was given best possible treatment and the consultants attending her also found out that she was suffering severe cardiology problems.

“Hence, it is very clear that she was suffering from a severe heart condition (Rheumatic Heart disease- severe form). She was regularly attended by cardiology, cardiac anaesthesia, neurosurgery, neurology during her admission in ICU. The allegations by the certain family members that she suffered from injuries sustained in the lift are totally baseless. This is clear from the reports like X-Rays of spine and chest, CT scans of the brain and spine etc,” it was stated in the report submitted by Dr Rehana.

“All these reports clearly showed that there was no injury caused due to the malfunctioning or mis-handling of the lift or due to negligence of the lift operator,” the enquiry report mentioned.