New Delhi, March 11 -- In a landmark first, the Supreme Court of India on Wednesday permitted passive euthanasia for a 31-year-old man from Ghaziabad who has been in a persistent vegetative state for over a decade, observing that continuing life-sustaining treatment would no longer be in the patient's best interest.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and KV Vishwanathan allowed the withdrawal of clinically assisted nutrition and hydration (CANH) for Harish Rana, who has remained in a vegetative state since suffering an accidental fall from a building in 2013.

Passive euthanasia refers to the withdrawal or withholding of life-sustaining treatment to allow a patient with no reasonable prospect of recovery to die naturally.

Expressing profo...