'Cannot remain mute spectator': Bombay HC appoints daughters as guardians of bedridden man; says court

Mumbai: Observing that courts “cannot be mute spectators to a real life situation”, the Bombay High court has appointed two daughters as guardians of a 73-year-old man who because of illnesses could not take care of himself or his property.

Justice Abhay Ahuja had passed the order on 8 May, the copy of which is available on Wednesday.

“The higher courts of our country exercise the ‘parens patriae' jurisdiction (legal protector of citizens unable to protect themselves) as they cannot be mute spectators to a real life situation of the nature before this Court,” Justice Ahuja said.

The court noted that the senior citizen was suffering from mental illness and was a “person in a state of lunacy who is incapable of taking care of himself or managing his property”.

As per the plea, the senior citizen suffered a brain injury in 2024, resulting in deprivation of oxygen and blood supply, during a cardiac arrest. As a consequence, he has been in a semi-conscious and incapacitated state and is bedridden till date.

“Such mental illness where the person is incapable of taking care of himself or managing his assets, can be said to be a “state of lunacy” and hence under the Letters Patent, the high court would have authority and jurisdiction with respect to the person and the estate of such a “lunatic”, the High Court said.

The petition was initially filed under the Guardian and Wards Act, by which a guardian can be appointed for the welfare of a minor alone. The plea was later amended and sought for the daughters to be appointed as guardians of the senior citizen under Clause XVII of the Letters Patent - under which the high court has the power and authority with regard to the person and estate of “infants, idiots and lunatics”.

“Lunacy refers to unsoundness of mind sufficient to incapacitate a person from civil transactions. It can also refer to a mental disorder as described in the definition of mental illness,” Justice Ahuja said.