CHENNAI: Holding that taking care of a person lying in a comatose condition is not that easy, and requires funds, the Madras High Court appointed the wife of a person who is in a vegetative state as guardian of his property to deal with his immovable property for his medical expenses by setting aside the previous court order.
The wife is permitted to deal with the property on behalf of his husband and to ensure that a sum of Rs.50 lakhs after selling his immovable property in Wall tax Road Chennai, has to be deposited in a nationalized bank in the name of her husband, wrote a vacation bench of Justice GR Swaminathan and Justice PB Balaji while allowing an appeal seeking to allow the wife to deal with her husband's property.
The Court is satisfied that the family is without any means and that unless the petition mentioned property is allowed to be dealt with, great hardship will be caused to them, read the judgment.
The bench also directed the appellant that the interest fetching from the deposited money should be withdrawn once in three months and the fixed deposit so created shall remain till the lifetime of her husband. After his demise, it will go in three equal shares in favor of his legal heirs (daughter and son) and the appellant.
The appellant S Sasikala moved an appeal seeking to set aside the Court order refusing to allow her to be appointed as the guardian of her husband, Sivakumar, who is in coma.
The daughter and son of Sivakumar stated before the Court that they have no objection to allowing their mother to be the guardian of their father's properties.
"The appellant's daughter struggled to control her emotions and indicated to the Court that they are presently bereft of any means and that unless their mother is allowed to deal with the property, the family will be in dire straits", wrote the bench.
Since the appellant is shouldering the entire burden of her husband's medical expenses, the Court refusing her petition on the ground that it is not maintainable is not right, wrote the bench.