Wife can operate a/c of comatose spouse, says Bombay HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court (HC) on Friday granted permission to the wife of a retired PSU general manager, who is suffering from a brain ailment and is in vegetative state for over a month, to operate his bank account, despite the fact that there is no specific legal provision to deal with the rights of such patients. The HC allowed her to operate the bank account so that she can use his account to fund his medical care, which has run into lakhs of rupees..

Philomina Lobo, the Navi Mumbai resident, had approached the high court earlier this week seeking to be appointed as her 63-year-old husband Leo’s guardian so that she could operate her husband’s bank account.

The government’s counsel Advait Sethna said, “We had requested the court to call for sub-divisional magistrate’s report to check petitioner’s claim and verify the medical certificate. On court’s directions, the magistrate filed a report, which confirms claims made by the woman, so the court allowed her petition.”

The magistrate was supposed to check the reports of neurologists from the Apollo Hospital in Navi Mumbai which claimed that Leo was suffering from “malignant MCA territory infraction of the brain” and was in a persistent vegetative state.

The division bench of Justice Shantanu Kemkar and Justice G.S. Kulkarni allowed the petition, observing that the petitioner has already suffered a lot and she should not be put through more troubles.

The court also took on record the affidavits of the petitioner’s two daughters, who said they did not have any objection to their mother operating their father’s bank accounts. The petitioner had informed the court that her husband was hospitalised on August 30. He remained “unconscious and in comatose condition as an indoor patient” on the ventilator till he was discharged from the hospital after keeping him for 28 days. But doctors advised he be kept under 24-hour care of a trained paramedic.