Hearing a case where a prison inmate suffering from advanced-stage cancer was denied timely treatment because “no escort guard was available” to take him to the hospital, a Gurgaon court termed the lapse “structural violence” and said that such denial of care strikes at the core of basic human rights. “It is very unfortunate on the part of the concerned system that in this time period of the 21st century, a cancer patient has not been provided timely treatment, not for any other reason, but due to non-availability of escort guard,” Gagan Geet Kaur R Arora, Additional Sessions Judge, Gurgaon, said on May 5. Terming the lapse as “indirect denial”, the court held that the failure to provide treatment due to the absence of escort guards amounts to “structural violence” and underscored that incarceration does not extinguish a prisoner’s fundamental rights. “Being a prisoner, the applicant-accused cannot be denied basic human right of health facility on such type of excuses,” the court said.…