SONIA FAZAL KHAN Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 1st Petitioner, Sonia Fazal Khan, is the wife of one Fazal Khan. Petitioners Nos. 2 and 3, Naeema and Tasneem, are Sonia 's and Fazal 's married daughters. The Petition says that for the last decade Fazal has been living in a vegetative state. He not only has dementia but has had multiple strokes. There are other complications. The prayer in the Petition is to appoint his wife, Sonia, the 1st Petitioner as the guardian of the Fazal 's personal and property.

(2.) In previous orders in other cases we have noticed that there is no structured provision in law as yet to deal with these situations. There are some indications in the Disabilities Act and in similar statutes but a comprehensive statute dealing with these situations and allowing pro-tem guardianship is not yet in place. We refer to our decision of 13/12/2021 in Lubina Mohamed Agarwal and Anr v Union of India and Ors. In paragraph 19 of our order dated we granted interim relief but subject to certain safeguards. We propose to adopt the same principle here.

(3.) First, as to Fazal 's condition. There is a reasonably recent clinical report of 1/10/2021. The report was submitted to this Court pursuant to an order of 25/8/2021 (Ujjal Bhuyan and Madhav J Jamdar, JJ). The report tells us that Fazal has dementia, very likely due to a multi-infarct state dating back to 2011. He has pneumonitis and bed sores. He has been hospitalized often. He is totally bed-ridden. He is administered oxygen nasally. He has spontaneous eye movements but cannot maintain eye contact, speak, understand, sign, move his right side or take any decision. He is totally dependent on his care-givers. He is fed through a Ryles tube. He has Foley catheter. His brain MRI of July 2006 suggests a diffuse cerebral atrophy with this multi-infarct stage.