Madras High Court appoints wife as guardian of husband in coma, allows her to sell his property

The Madras High Court recently appointed the wife of a person in a coma as his guardian and permitted her to sell or mortgage his immovable property worth over ₹1 crore to pay for his medical expenses and for maintaining the family..A Bench of Justices GR Swaminathan and PB Balaji reversed an order passed by a single judge, who had dismissed the woman’s petition in April this year. The Division Bench noted,“Taking care of a person lying in Comatose condition is not that easy. It requires funds. Paramedical staff will have to be hired...The appellant is shouldering the entire burden. Driving the appellant to move the civil Court, in our view, is not proper. When based on admitted and proved facts relief can be granted, there is no purpose in non-suiting the appellant on the ground that the writ petition is not maintainable. In fact, when writ petitions raising similar grounds have been entertained and reliefs were granted, the learned Judge was not right in holding that the writ petition is not maintainable.".The Court was hearing a petition filed by Chennai resident S Sasikala seeking to be appointed as the guardian of her husband M Sivakumar, who has been in a vegetative state since the last five months.Sasikala had also asked that she be permitted to operate his bank account and sell or mortgage his immoveable property.The single-judge had held that the petition for appointing her as Sivakumar's guardian was not maintainable since the Mental Healthcare Act of 2017 did not contain any provision for dealing with financial aspects. He had asked Sasikala to approach a civil court..The Division Bench, however, noted that the family was without any means to take care of Sivakumar, and unless the property is allowed to be sold or mortgaged, great hardship will be caused to them.It also cited a Kerala High Court judgment which held that a wife could be appointed as her husband’s guardian after invoking the parens patriae jurisdiction, since no other remedy was provided under any statute for patients in a comatose state.The Court thus allowed the property to be sold. However, it stipulated that a fixed deposit of a sum of ₹50 lakh be opened in Sivakumar's name."The deposit amount will fetch interest and the accrued interest can be withdrawn by the appellant once in three months. Fixed Deposit so created shall remain till the life time of Thiru.Sivakumar.".Advocate N Vijayaraj appeared for the petitioner S Sasikala.Standing Counsel M Sneha and Government Advocate K Tippusultan appeared for the State and District authorities..[Read Order]