In a startling incident at the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, lawyer S. Selvakumari was attacked by a monkey, causing panic and highlighting a lack of immediate medical facilities within the court premises.
Selvakumari, a permanent member of the Supreme Court Bar Council, was entering the court complex when she was suddenly bitten on the thigh by a monkey. “I was trying to enter the top court when a monkey bit me. There was no one outside the gate to help, and no security presence,” she recounted.
Following the attack, she sought treatment at the Supreme Court’s dispensary only to find it under renovation and lacking basic first aid supplies. “There was no medicine available for primary treatment,” Selvakumari explained, a statement that underscores a serious gap in emergency preparedness at the court.
The lawyer then went to a polyclinic, where the wound was merely cleaned without any medication being administered due to a lack of supplies. The attending physician at the polyclinic advised her to visit the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital for further treatment. She received a tetanus shot at the Delhi High Court complex before heading to RML Hospital, where she was given three additional injections, with more to follow.
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Selvakumari is now experiencing severe fever and psychological distress, reactions she attributes to the multiple injections. She emphasized the need for better safety and medical arrangements within the Supreme Court complex to handle such unforeseen incidents. “There should be some system in place to manage such situations,” she stated, highlighting the lack of personnel to ward off or manage the monkey menace at the court’s gates.
