The Supreme Court directed AIIMS, New Delhi, to constitute a medical board to examine Asaram’s health in his interim bail plea. The board must submit its report within a week in the minor rape case linked to his ashram.
The Supreme Court directed the Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, to constitute a medical board to examine the health of self-styled godman Asaram, who is seeking interim bail on medical grounds in the case concerning the rape of a minor girl at his ashram, and asked that the board submit its report within a week.
A Bench of Justices M.M. Sundresh and P.B. Varale passed the direction while making it clear that it would not release the convict on interim bail unless an independent medical assessment established that his condition genuinely warranted it.
Declining to grant relief on the strength of the medical claims placed before it, the Bench observed,
“We are not granting regular bail except if we are satisfied it is required on a medical ground. Let the report come.”
Appearing for the State of Rajasthan, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta opposed the plea and questioned the genuineness of the ailments asserted on Asaram’s behalf. He pointed out that only a few months earlier, the octogenarian had travelled to Kashi Vishwanath and Ayodhya, submitting that a man said to be gravely unwell was, in fact, moving about freely.
The Solicitor General told the Court,
“He got the bail on the ground that he was in vegetative state. But now he is roaming around,”
Counsel for Asaram, on the other hand, urged that the matter be referred to the Director of AIIMS to constitute a specialised team of doctors, so that a comprehensive examination could determine whether hospitalisation was medically necessary. Accepting that course, the Court directed the constitution of the board and sought its report within one week.
Tuesday’s order followed an earlier round of hearings in which the Court had pressed the State to place Asaram’s medical position clearly on record. On July 17, the same Bench had asked the Rajasthan government to assess his medical reports and determine whether his condition justified interim relief, indicating that it would be guided by the State’s evaluation.
Cautioning that it did not want any untoward development, the Court had observed that neither the Court nor the State should be exposed to blame, and had asked the government to respond. The State had then submitted that Asaram was fit, again referring to his recent visits to Ayodhya and Kashi, while undertaking to seek further instructions.
Background of the case
Asaram is a convict in a 2013 case registered in Jodhpur, in which he was found to have sexually assaulted a teenage girl who was a student at his ashram. On April 25, 2018, a Jodhpur court convicted him and sentenced him to life imprisonment under provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act and the Juvenile Justice Act.
He has remained in custody since his arrest on August 31, 2013.
The present proceedings arise from his challenge to a decision of the Rajasthan High Court, which in May 2026 upheld his conviction and the life sentence, while partly allowing the appeals to the extent of setting aside certain charges.
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Asaram approached the Supreme Court against that judgment in June 2026, and, with his appeal pending, sought interim bail on the ground of his advanced age and deteriorating health, his counsel having submitted that he had developed acute internal bleeding.
Asaram’s plea also unfolds against a well-documented history of medical-bail litigation. He was first granted interim bail on medical grounds in January 2025, relief that was thereafter extended. After a subsequent request for further extension was declined, he surrendered and returned to custody. It is in this context that the State has urged caution, contending that his medical claims have previously enabled his release even as he was later seen to be active in public.
The reference to an AIIMS medical board is itself a course the Supreme Court has taken before in Asaram’s matters, the Court having historically preferred an independent institutional assessment over the competing medical opinions tendered by the parties. The matter will be taken up afresh once the board’s report is received.