In 1973, while working at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Parel, Mumbai, she was sexually assaulted and has been in a vegetative state since the assault. On 24th January 2011, after she had been in this status for 37 years, the Supreme Court of India responded to the plea for euthanasia filed by Aruna's friend and a journalist Pinki Virani, by setting up a medical panel to examine her. The Court turned down the mercy killing petition on 7 March 2011.However in its landmark judgment, it allowed passive euthanasia in India.